Zero: Diamond Earth
by kaelenmitharos
Summary: Zero and X failed. Sigma finally won; Old Earth died. This story begins four hundred years later, after Zero's reincarnation into the new world, Diamond Earth. Now rated M for intense digital violence, severe kissing, and use of the word "frickin." AU, OC
1. Chapter 0: Homecoming

Author's note: I don't own the Capcom characters referenced here, but I do claim ownership of everything else. Oh, and at the time of posting this chapter I've also edited chapters 1 and 2 to make them better. Even if you've read them before, it may be worthwhile to have another gander.

Oh, and by the way, the site recently destroyed all the scene breaks in my story. I'm reinstating them in different form as of 3/23/08 US mountain time, but it'll take a few hours.

* * *

The Maverick Hunters failed, and Sigma won. Old Earth died, and in its death gave rise to a new, digital world, Diamond Earth.

However, not everything went according to plan. Four hundred years after the birth of Diamond Earth, Zero has been reborn.

Someday, the crimson warrior will regain his true purpose and stand anew to defeat his ancient enemy. Assuming he survives long enough to try.

Please enjoy the twists and turns of this sci-fi adventure romance. I appreciate reviews, particularly those with helpful criticism, and like to personally answer reviewers' questions and concerns.

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**Chapter Zero: Homecoming**

Iris Cainson stood still and alone in the cluttered dank of the basement workshop, hands clasped in front of her. Yellow, flickering light wandered cautiously from panels in the ceiling and shuddered back from the ghostly white dust guards covering the furniture. A few squat, dirty windows lined the very top of the wall, showing a tiny glimpse of the outside world. Occasionally she glanced up through those windows, her face pale.

After a few minutes of this the young woman pulled a little device from her purse the general shape and size of a cell phone. She pressed a key on its surface, and the device expanded into something the size of a paperback novel and the general design of a laptop computer, complete with a miniature keyboard and a small monitor. Iris dialed a series of digits, and after a moment's wait a video feed popped up on the teleconsole's, or TC's, monitor.

The feed showed a young man's handsome angular face, dominated by a pair of sapphire blue eyes and framed by a scarlet and white durasteel helmet. A ponytail the color of ripened yellow corn sprouted from the back of the man's helmet and fell behind his armor plated shoulders, offscreen. He frowned at her with slightly creased brows.

"Sorry we're late, Iris. Flash said he had to pack some things before he could go. We'll be ready soon. Excuse me."

Before Iris could respond or even say hello, he pressed the mute button and spoke to someone offscreen, his frown deepening. He left his own teleconsole lying on a table or some other high, flat surface, giving the young woman on the other end a high-definition display of his armor covered body.

Iris' eyes flicked up and down the young man's vividly red plate mail, complete with its pearly white accents and black bodysuit lying underneath. A glossy black sheath dangled loosely from its buckle on his hip, holding the adamantine sabre that had seen the warrior through hundreds of battles. She smiled at the sight.

He turned back to her and unmuted the receiver. "Just a little longer. I've reminded Flash of the situation."

She nodded. "I'm sorry to ask you both to come home like this on such short notice. You don't really have to stay for long if you don't want to, sir."

"Yes I do." He turned his head at a voice from offscreen. "Time to go. We'll be there soon."

Iris inclined her head to him, setting her dark brown hair tumbling around her face. "Thank you, Zero."

00000

Hundreds of miles away, the crimson warrior nodded and closed the connection. "Flash, you lunatic, teleport us now. Your sister is scared. She needs us."

Flash nodded, typing one last line of code into his personal programming teleconsole. The man's roomy cargo pants held over a dozen compartments for his many tools and devices, that TC included. A drab green belt at the waist served the triple purpose of holding up the heavily burdened pants, carrying another half dozen other esoteric inventions, and binding in his long, multicolored tunic at the waist.

The tunic by itself was a sight to make sore eyes. Its brilliant patchwork of colors clashed in ways that never failed to earn astonished or morbid stares from passers-by in the street. Its pattern shifted from time to time, but never into anything more stylish or less shocking.

Flash stood between 5'8 and 5'9, roughly six or seven inches shorter than Zero, and weighed nearly thirty-five pounds less, leaving him with a frame of average height that nevertheless gangled excessively. His face was narrow and bony, and his short, light brown hair stood straight up from his head and curled slightly on itself, giving it a wavy look. It waved to and fro as he continued to nod like a deranged bobble head doll.

"No worries, Sissy's gonna be fine, I'll kill the sonofagun for trying! Just have to tag all my stuff as parameters for the teleport program and its, oh, here we go, beam us out Scotty—"

The programmer cackled a string of gibberish with over twenty times the speed of human speech. "EXECUTE teleporttype:secure/biotransfer(0, , 6, trif'ce, 73, domain:Wind Programming University Town/Wind Programming University/Student Residences/Pentium Hall/number 319/frontroom, domain:Stormy Hill region/Windy Fountains/Silver Pine Street/number 1407/basementworkshop, leavegate:5 minutes); return 0;. WhoooooooOOOOO!"

The two men evaporated into thin air along with the crazed programmer's several large boxes of luggage. They reappeared hundreds of miles away, in front of Iris, in the dank of the basement, with the barest whisper of movement.

She jumped, amber eyes popping wide, at the suddenness of their arrival, then ran forward to embrace her brother. The young woman hit Flash hard enough to send the brunet programmer tripping and falling backwards over a box. Her own momentum carried her forwards, and they landed together in a heap. Zero smiled at the sight of the siblings reunited.

"Ouch. Are you all right, Flash?" Iris stood up and lent her brother a hand. He blinked and sneezed, making no move to take it. Reclined over his luggage, the programmer looked around the room.

"Sissy, why's my old workshop all dusty and covered in these cloth thingies?"

Iris dusted off her dress and bowed, her forehead creased. "I'm sorry, I should have kept it up better while you were at college. I didn't have time to get it all cleaned up before you gentlemen got here. Again, I apologize."

Zero rolled his eyes. "Your brother will survive. I've seen his automated cleaning programs. Tell me where I can find this Takato Matsuda."

Iris turned to the warrior and clasped her hands over her chest. He took a moment to get a better look at the young woman.

The blond saw echoes of Flash's bony countenance in hers, but softened to fit a smooth, feminine ideal. Her face bore the high cheekbones, pale skin, and narrow nose and lips that suggested a largely Nordic heritage. In contrast with these features, Iris also possessed a pair of deep amber eyes and a head of soft, dark brown hair that fell in perfect ringlets down to her narrow waist.

Currently, the young woman wore what looked like a dress for a modern soirée, complete with loose, glittery skirts slit up to the knee and short sleeves to allow free movement while dancing. She wore a bracelet of diamonds and topazes to accent the violet dress, and a pendant with her house emblem around her neck. Even in the poor lighting of the basement, the outfit suited her. Everything seemed to suit her.

Zero's eyes jerked back up to Iris's face. She had been talking. "What?"

The brunette blinked at him, her eyebrow twitching a little. "I was saying, sir, that the gentleman in question is still at the party. I don't know what's happening up there, with me gone. I'm supposed to be the hostess. I hope he didn't follow me home."

"If he did, he's a dead man…but he's a dead man anyway. Flash, stay here with Iris. I'll find the man and challenge him to a duel. A death match." Zero strode out of the basement, one hand gripping the hilt of his sabre.

Iris watched him go with wide eyes, a faint smile hovering around her lips. "He's always…refreshingly direct, isn't he, Flash?"

He cackled and removed his teleconsole from a pocket. "He's funny when he's mad. Let's watch!"

00000

"Is it wrong to say that we should serve the Genesis King for all he's done for us? I mean really. Hasn't she got any sense at all?"

The warrior lounged back in his lawn chair, tan ring mail armor glinting glossily. The daylight had long since departed, and there had never been stars in the sky, but the cream colored light from the standing lamps effectively illuminated his armor, weapons, and some of his facial features.

Stiff plates of dark tan augmented the ring mail in places like the chest, shoulders, head, and thighs. A sheath dangled from either side of the man's sword belt, and a broad grin spread across his young, mustachioed face.

His lawn chair, and those of the people around him, stood on a smooth, grassy turf ringed on three sides with flowers and hedges. The turf shared a fourth side with a stage on which a number of people, aged from sixteen at the youngest to late twenties at the oldest, danced to flashing lights and heavily rhythmic, energetic music. Their wardrobe variously glittered or swallowed the light, twirled sinuously or clung to their forms in the fashion of their generation. A few severely dressed older men and women stood by the sidelines or watched the dark corners of the area to inhibit any hanky-panky by their partygoing sons and daughters.

Most of them currently watched the scene unfolding under the cream colored lamplight. For several minutes now, the dancing of the young crowd had stuttered along like a junior high prom in Boise, Idaho of Old Earth. Groups and pairs of teenagers and twenty-somethings took up their coats and left. Meanwhile, the warrior cultist kept up his monologue uncontested.

"And serving me serves the Genesis King. I mean, that makes sense, right? I'm a loyal follower here, I'm preaching his word, I don't think it's too much to expect something in return. What's the big deal?"

The young woman across the table from him forced a smile, her hazel eyes straying to the pair of katanas sheathed at the man's waist. Others, mostly single men or women around Iris' age or married couples of the same age group, forced a laugh. One man cleared his throat and spoke into his drink, eyes glued to the grass.

"But, Mr. Matsuda, what will you do if she's gone to call her brother's friend, that Zero Doppler? We hear he's quite…something…"

The man sputtered to a stop and cowered back as Takato Matsuda glared. "I'm a servant of the Genesis King. No one gets in our way. If he really thinks he's so special, this Doppler kid's gonna wind up dead."

The young woman across from him stood and set down her glass. For a brief moment she remained still, smirking stiffly at the armed and armored warrior before her.

Takato Matsuda regarded the woman with raised eyebrows. From her general appearance and development, she could have been anywhere from seventeen to twenty years old. Set in a tan, oval face, her ruby red lips curved upwards at the corners and her eyebrows slanted slightly up and out in the loveliest aesthetic of the Chinese. Her sky blue hair fell back in a lustrous ponytail, with a few locks hanging free on either side of her face. She regarded him through narrowed hazel eyes, accented with exactly the right amount of eyeshadow.

His eyes strayed down from her flawless countenance to her feminine curves. They merited the attention, despite having been dressed in a noncustomized, conservative dancing outfit, rather than the specially tailored clothes of the rich or something cheap but provocative. Matsuda grinned and returned her gaze.

"What, are you going to stand there all night looking pretty? Come here, missy. Don't be scared…" he crooked a finger at her, toying with the hilt of one of his katanas all the while.

"I won't ever answer to 'missy'. I am Malon Haolin." She looked down her nose at him, her voice steadying. "And I won't let you talk about Zero like that. He's the best warrior in the world. In fact, I bet he could take you out in three minutes flat."

Matsuda laughed shortly, his face reddening. "I think I heard you wrong, missy. Because I think I heard you say the Doppler kid could beat me. You'd better come over, right here, and tell me what you really said before we get all miscommunicated."

He leered at her and gestured to his lap, gripping the hilt of the katana openly. Malon turned away.

"You're really stupid if you think you can intimidate me. Zero and my brothers could—"

Her voice cut off in a squeak. Matsuda had drawn a katana, cut the cast iron table between them in half, and crossed the intervening distance to grab Malon before anyone could blink. He held her around the throat with one arm, keeping the young woman pinned against his armored chest. His other hand held the blade, orange fluid running slowly along its edge to drop from the tip to the ground.

Behind him, the two pieces of the table tumbled to the side. Those youths still dancing on the stage stopped and pointed, some of them screaming, others simply murmuring among themselves and watching. The people closer around Takato and Malon froze, speechless. One woman fainted quietly, but no one thawed enough to help her.

"Your brothers aren't here, missy, and neither is Doppler. And none of them are really dumb enough to go up against one of Sigma's chosen." As he spoke, she crinkled her nose at a whiff of strong, cheap liquor.

"You. Are you Takato Matsuda?"

Takato half-turned, relaxing his grip on Malon slightly. He raised his eyebrows at what he saw.

Matsuda's eyes alit on a 6'3", 175 lbs man wearing fully fifty-five pounds of scarlet plate mail armor. Nine pounds of that consisted of a red and white shield shaped like an elongated diamond, or a simple, four-sided kite. The man stood with one hand resting easily on the hilt of his sheathed, 32" metal sabre, and the other in a loose fist at his side. He was bigger, taller, and more heavily armored than Takato Matsuda by far.

The tan warrior laughed and let Malon Haolin go altogether. She ran over to Zero, who gave her a quick hug around the shoulders and maneuvered her to stand behind him. He kept his crystal blue gaze locked on Matsuda's sneer the entire time.

"Who's asking, punk?" the cultist warrior muttered at him.

"I am Zero Doppler. I take offense at 'punk.' Do you withdraw your word?"

"Like he—" The other man stared at him a moment, mouth twitching, and his whole expression changed. He laughed.

"I get it, I get it. You want to go through that whole 'taking offense' business to get me into a legal duel with you, eh? Trying to get rid of me? And you're trying to make it all about us two, so the Cult will only come after you if do beat me. How noble.

"I don't think I'm going to play that game, Doppler. Tell you what, I do withdraw that word, 'punk' and anything else I said to hurt your feelings. I'll even say I'm sorry I said it, in front of all these witnesses. I'm just here to preach the good word of Sigma, right?"

Zero glared. Takato cocked his head and sheathed his katana. He stepped forwards and gazed up at the crimson warrior with half-lidded eyes. "You know, the Genesis King really does preach peace, Doppler. No need to fight."

He laughed again, like a hyena. Zero said something thoroughly unprintable with regards to the warrior's mother and possible sisters. Malon blushed, covering her mouth with her hand.

Takato smirked, his eyes narrowing. "And now you're trying to bait me out. Cute. Who are you really fighting for, Zero? Little missy here?" he gestured at Malon, who scowled at him. "Or the Cainson girl? That's official, it is, to say whose honor you're defending. Not that it's really important. Whoever it is, I'll make sure she suffers for defying Sigma's servant."

Flash and Iris Cainson watched and heard the entire scene through the brunet programmer's teleconsole. He picked a small, flanged metal thing off his belt.

"We'll see who suffers, gelatinous glob of zits—"

His sister laid her hand over his and locked his amber eyes in her own. "No combat hacking. You could go to jail, and that would leave me and Zero all alone, Flash. Let us handle this one."

The man twitched and waggled his eyebrows at her. "Not even just a little hacking?—okay, if you say so, Sis…"

He pulled his hands from the keyboard and slowly put away the flanged thing. Iris blinked and frowned a moment, forehead creased.

_Please tell him you're doing this on my behalf, sir. With you and Flash, I'm sure even the Cult can't hurt me. I trust you both._

Out under the starless sky, the young woman's voice beamed into Zero's head as if though a cell phone or radio of Old Earth, but hearable only to him. He replied immediately in like manner.

_Understood,_ he beamed to her, and opened his mouth—

Malon gripped the warrior's elbow. "Zero. Tell him you're dueling him for me. You and Kai and Matt can keep me protected just fine. I believe in you," she whispered.

He half-turned to regard her. His eyes flicked from the woman to the other warrior, and back again, but Malon didn't follow Zero's gaze to the cultist.

She turned away, holding his arm with both hands. "I'll be fine."

The Cainson siblings watched and listened. Iris shook her head. _Zero, this would put her whole house in jeopardy. She can't make that choice for them. I can, for my house. Please tell the gentleman you're doing this for me, sir._

Even as her words entered Zero's head, he turned at the sound of footsteps on the grass. Takato did the same, and they watched as an old man approached, the hem of his cloak floating around the tops of his soft leather boots. The crowd of partygoers watched him as well, including the youths standing or sitting frozen around the epicenter of Matsuda and Zero's confrontation.

"What is this? Timothy Keppler, your fiancée has fainted to the floor in front of you. See to it she's taken to the hospital this moment, you young fool."

The old man glared, and Keppler came unfrozen with a start. He knelt by future Mrs. Keppler's side, mumbling apologies and pulling out his teleconsole to call the paramedics.

Zero kept his gaze on the old man. "Elder Programmer Gau. I would bow, but this cowardly fool Matsuda might stab me in the b—"

"Silence, Zero." He turned to the young warrior, wrinkled face pursed in a frown. His snowy mane fluttered in the cool night breeze; frowning more deeply, Gau pulled his drab, woolen cloak tighter around his stoop shouldered frame. The man's chill blue eyes shone piercingly from under wispy white eyebrows. "You, Miss Cainson, and Miss Haolin have already done enough to endanger this town. I won't allow your rash actions to cause our destruction."

The crimson warrior returned the Elder Programmer's gaze in silence a moment longer, receiving one last message from Iris.

_Understood. I'll do it._ Zero turned his back on the administrator and faced Matsuda. "You. Cultist scum."

The tan warrior laughed. "Yeah?"

"On behalf of Iris Cainson, I challenge you to a duel to the death. Do you accept?"

Gau waved a hand. "Zero Doppler! You have one last chance to take this back. Think of Miss Cainson!"

"I won't." He didn't look back.

"Then as the domain administrator of Windy Fountains, I formally declare House Doppler null and void. You are an exile. You will leave this town by this time next week and not return. I declare House Cainson similarly erased, and Iris and Flash Cainson exiles effective one week from the time they receive these words. This town has no business with those foolish enough to challenge the Cult of Sigma."

Zero nodded. "Understood."

Matsuda folded his arms. "Shut up, you wrinkly old man. Doppler, I accept your challenge. I'll kill you at noon tomorrow in the central arena, and you can bring any weapon you like to die with. Enjoy your last few hours alive." He winked at Malon Haolin and strode off.

The young woman hugged Zero's arm tighter. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to him with her hazel eyes wide.

"I—I'm sorry, I—"

"It's not your fault. Malon…your brothers are here. They'll take you home. I'll see you later." He glanced into the dark and pulled away from her. She put out a hand to catch him, but the blond warrior leapt away too fast for her eyes to follow. He left her behind without another word.

"Wait…" Malon Haolin stared after him a moment, then turned on Elder Programmer Gau. Her face flushed red and her hands clenched into fists.

"How could you do that to him! All he wanted was to protect us from that filthy cultist, and you have the gall to say he can't come back to his own home town? You've probably wrecked his career at the Academy, too, but what do you care? Not to mention Flash's scholarship is dead and buried with an exile on his record! But I really can't believe you'd throw out Iris, who's lived here all her life! What are you thinking?"

As she talked, a pair of warriors in azure blue plate mail, accented in lighter blue, dashed over to the scene from the direction in which Zero had glanced. They took positions on either side of the young woman and grabbed her arms.

"Malon, calm down!" Matt Haolin yelled.

"That's Elder Gau you're talking to. Don't say such things," Kai Haolin added.

She jerked free of their dual grip and folded her arms. "Shut up. I don't regret a single word of it, any of it."

Gau stood silent through this exchange, eyes locked on Malon's. "I don't expect you to understand this now, child. Someday, though, perhaps you will learn."

Malon glared at him wordlessly, and the old man turned and walked away. The Haolin brothers stood with their sister as Iris' party broke up around them.

"I'm sorry we got here too late to help you," Kai muttered.

"It's hard to find a teleport facility open this late at night," Matt finished. "What did we miss?"

Malon stalked off into the night, grabbing up her purse on the way. Her brothers exchanged a glance and followed after her.

00000

Night passed, and dawn came to House Doppler in the normal way of things. Its soft, ruddy light fell into the gritty gray of the roofing, splashed across the brick of the walls, filtered through the dusty windows, and caressed the gardenias gone wild by the front porch. A couple of hours passed, and the light changed from rosy pink to orange and finally to yellow.

Unlike the normal way of things, when morning came to the house it found someone else already sleeping inside. Zero Doppler, a tall young man of nineteen years, awoke in a bed made for the twelve year old boy he had been before leaving for Hurricane Force Academy. Even when he curled up like a cooked shrimp, the mattress barely contained him.

Blinking in the yellow light, the orphan rose, left his bedroom, and walked alone through a house built before his parents had disappeared. Silence echoed from the walls, and dust settled down from the furniture whenever he took a step. Glancing around the emptiness, he descended the stairs to the first floor.

Zero passed a hand through his long, blond hair, muscles rippling and flexing sinuously under his flawless, light caramel colored skin. The motion activated his armor programs; a few seconds passed, and a black bodysuit materialized over his otherwise naked form. Piece by piece, the warrior's scarlet and white suit of plate mail materialized over the bodysuit.

In only a moment, he stood at the front door, one hand gripping the hilt of his sheathed sabre. The bed had been too small and the house too large, but the weapon and armor fit just right. Zero smiled and strode out onto the porch, sniffing the air to catch the buttery scent of the gardenias.

The blond got on his motorcycle (Flash had teleported it from the warrior academy late the previous night) and collected Iris from her house, and the two of them went to Windy Fountains' administrative office to fill out the legal paperwork for the duel. Takato's paperwork had been taken care of already, so they didn't meet him while they dotted the _i_'s and crossed the _t_'s.

By the time they finished, an audience had begun to gather around the town's central arena a little way down the street. Zero held the door open for Iris on the way out of the domain admin's office building, and they walked shoulder to shoulder to his motorcycle. Iris glanced up at the blond, and saw him gazing into the distance with a faraway expression. She bowed to him.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I've gotten you into, sir."

He blinked and focused on her. "That cultist is the only one in trouble."

"Yes, of course," she smiled a little. "I only meant—"

"I know. It doesn't bother me to leave here, or give up my place at the academy. I've learned all I can there, and here. Are you ready to go?"

The brunette nodded. "Yes, please take me back to my house. If Flash decided to interfere with the duel, I'm the only one that could stop him."

Zero climbed onto the motorcycle and lent Iris his hand. "Understood."

She took his hand and mounted in front of him. His long arms easily reached around her to hold the handlebars, surrounding the young woman on three sides with his strong, steely embrace. She, too, held the handlebars, but only for support. Her hair, currently coiled in an elaborate braid, tickled his nose.

Zero put his passkey in the ignition and kicked back the kickstand, and the two youths set off at a gentle pace to her house. He dropped the brunette off and saw her inside, then revved the engine and roared over to the arena at breakneck speed. His ponytail streamed out behind

His scarlet armor gleaming in the full, golden light of noon, the young man arrived to the boisterous murmur of the crowd. Despite the unusually short waiting period between the challenge and the event, over five hundred people had arrived to watch the duel. Beneath their noisy calls and murmurings, the bleachers groaned under the weight of nearly twenty percent of Windy Fountains' entire population. Takato Matsuda was not the first cultist to blow through the town, but he had caused more trouble than most. And few of the townspeople had ever seen the Doppler child fight in a real live battle, much less a death match.

Zero parked his motorcycle in a space reserved for the purpose and strode through the open gates into the arena. The outcome of this battle would mean the death of either him or the cultist Takato Matsuda.

Malon and her brothers watched from their front-row seats as the crimson warrior walked from his parked motorcycle to one end of the flat, elliptical, granite-floored arena. On cue, Takato Matsuda rose from a chair placed at the other end and kicked said chair to the sidelines. He was armed and armored as he had been the night before, his tan ring mail and the sheaths for his two katanas clinking as he moved. Malon looked from him to Zero, hazel eyes wide.

"Glad to see you showed up, fool. I thought you might take the girl and run off," the cultist announced in a voice that carried to the back of the bleachers.

Zero made no vocal reply, but unstrapped the shield from his back and unsheathed his sabre. Takato filled the silence for him.

"It would've been the smart thing, Doppler. You're a green little whelp that thinks he's special for being the perfect student at school."

Zero remained wordless, weapon drawn. Hearing it all from her front row seat, Malon answered for him.

"You idiot! Zero graduated from Hurricane Force Academy four years ago!"

Takato waved her comment aside. "Shut up, wench. I know for a fact he came here straight from campus just last night."

"That's because he's been teaching there, idiot! After Zero graduated, the academy hired him to teach! Good luck beating a full-status HFA combat master!" she crowed in reply.

The tan warrior hesitated a moment, eyes flicking from the young woman in the bleachers to the blond in front of him. "He'll be a combat master's corpse when I'm done with him," he muttered loudly.

Malon looked ready to keep up the argument, but stopped at a glance from Zero. After a long moment of silence, Elder Programmer Gau stood from the seat placed on his raised platform on the sidelines.

"Zero Doppler, of no house. What is the grievance for which you have challenged the man before you?"

"Numerous offenses against Iris Cainson, of no recognized house. I hereby challenge this man to a duel on her behalf."

"Takato Matsuda, of the foreign House Matsuda. You have previously read his grievances, and they are many. What is your response to these accusations?"

"- him. I've done nothing outside my sworn duty as one Sigma's blessed followers. I'll take his challenge and shove it nine inches up his -."

He unsheathed both katanas and adopted a ready stance, both blades lifted in front, one to either side. Zero, a right-handed swordsman, raised the kite shield up to cover his left flank and held his sabre back and to the right. Gau sighed at the sight.

"Then there is no other way. According to their respective wishes and the laws of this land, the Wind server, these two warriors will engage in combat to the death, and by this death clear the operating system of their grievances." He turned and touched a few keys on the teleconsole sitting on the arm of his chair. "The barriers around the arena are now active. Let battle be joined."


	2. Chapter 1: Duel

Author's note: This chapter has been heavily edited. Even if you read the original version, I highly recommend you read this one too. Posted 2/29/08.

* * *

**Chapter One: Duel**

Elder Programmer Gau turned and touched a few keys on the teleconsole sitting on the arm of his chair. "The barriers around the arena are now active. Let battle be joined."

He sat slowly into his chair. Before the man's elderly rear even settled into the cushion, Takato dashed across the thirty yards between himself and Zero, roaring like a nettled samurai. The crimson warrior stood his ground and blocked the tan warrior's longer right-hand blade with the his shield, meanwhile reaching underneath the left-hand katana with his sabre. Zero's longer reach enabled the blond to nick his opponent's left leg above the knee, in the crease between two dark tan armor plates; the tip of his sabre clove Takato's ring mail like cheese and left a cut across the muscle of the thigh. He pivoted to his left and leapt backwards to avoid a counterattack from the cultists' darting left-hand katana.

Takato flinched a little at the cut on his leg but kept charging forwards. Zero's shallow jump carried him just far enough away to give the crimson warrior a chance to reassume his fighting stance before the cultist struck at him for the second time.

It happened too fast for most people, including Malon, to process, but her warrior brothers Kai and Matt's eyes widened at what Zero couldn't see. Though the blond's kite shield had successfully blocked the cultist's right-hand katana in the first attack, the katana had left a deep scratch in the shield's red and white face. Orange fluid sizzled into it, instantly weakening the hardened metal to the consistency of balsa wood.

As Takato came upon him for the second time, Zero brought his own blade under the left-hand katana to deepen the cut on the cultist's left thigh. Just like the first time, he held the damaged kite shield up to block the tan warrior's right-hand katana.

His eyes widened as Takato's weapon bit straight through his shield and sliced in towards his chest, its edge lined with hissing orange death. He sucked in his torso and rocked back on his heels, and the blade swooshed under his left arm, its tip falling just short of his chestplate.

Zero quickstepped backwards, bringing his sabre up into a defensive position. The orange fluid from the cultist's left-hand katana had, for whatever reason, not affected its metal the same way it had destroyed the kite shield.

Takato stepped forwards, bringing one katana in for a backhand blow while keeping the other in reserve against any possible counterattacks. Before he could complete the move, the tan warrior's damaged left leg gave out beneath his weight and he fell to one knee. Grimacing with the sudden development, he raised both katanas into defensive positions and backed off towards the other end of the elliptical arena, limping all the way.

Zero allowed him to do so unhindered. Holding his sabre out front like a fencer, the crimson warrior stood like a coiled spring at his end of the arena. The kite shield, torn nearly in half and dripping orange fluid, dangled uselessly from his other arm.

Without taking his eyes off his opponent, Zero dropped the ruined shield, which clanked loudly to the ground. The noise reverberated off of the high, transparent barriers that guarded the edge of the arena. Outside, the crowd stood and watched with the kind of silence that swallows most noises whole.

As they watched, Zero beckoned across the arena with his free hand.

Takato Matsuda smiled as his opponent's shield fell to the stone. His smile faded slightly as the pain in his leg increased. While dodging his most recent attack, the crimson warrior had landed a second gash on Matsuda's thigh, next to the first.

"You girly-haired queerbait, what kind of idiot are you? No one takes on the Cult and lives. You're a dead man walking, queerbait. And you know what else? I'm going to have fun with those wenches of yours when you're dead," the cultist leered.

Zero's free hand dropped and he leapt forward, his expression stony. Matsuda whirled away, both katanas engaged in blocking the other warrior's furious sabre strikes. Finally he mustered a counterattack, but his weak leg buckled underneath him for the second time and the attack fell short. In the next moment Zero's sabre lay sheathed in Matsuda's head, in his virtual drive.

Luminescent white fluid spurted from the wound as the cultist fell. Pumped to the virtual drive and back by the many processors and subprocessors stored in the man's torso, the randomized data bled out in seconds. The man's virtual drive, destroyed in a single stroke of the crimson warrior's sabre, failed to return the data; as a result, the processors fell out of communication with the rest of the body, which began to disintegrate.

Long story short, Takato Matsuda died, and his body decomposed rapidly before the eyes of the watching crowd. Only his armor and weapons, along with his processors and the remaining fragments of his virtual drive, remained behind as he rotted. Zero crouched down, picked up one of the late cultist's katanas, sheathed it, and buckled it to his belt.

The victorious warrior stood up to his full six feet three inches, sabre in hand, his eyes searching the crowd. His red plate mail and black bodysuit gleamed in the glow of day, and his eyes shone crystal blue. The long, corn-blond ponytail whipped at the mercy of the wind. A single strand separated from its brethren and instantly blew out of sight of the watching crowd.

Zero spoke. "He's dead. Elder Programmer Gau, was there interference?"

"No." The silver-haired administrator pursed his wrinkled face. "There was no hacking during the duel. You are the undisputed victor."

The crowd let out a collective sigh. Sounds and signs of life returned to their faces as Zero finally sheathed his sabre. At a word from Gau, the transparent walls surrounding the arena vanished.

Immediately Malon jumped down from her front-row seat in the bleachers and dashed towards the young man. She stopped just short of jumping into his arms.

"Zero, are you all right? Your arm is covered in that orange stuff! Are you sure it isn't a virus?" She reached tentatively for his damaged arm.

The crimson warrior smiled down at her, very slightly. "I'll heal. Thanks for the concern." He gently pulled away.

The girl, Malon, lowered her gaze to the ground. Her light blue hair, bound in a loose ponytail, struggled like a captive bird in the wind. "I want you to know, Zero, whatever anyone else says, you were doing the right thing." She looked up into his eyes, eyebrows arched and frowning.

Zero nodded. "Thank you, Malon." He turned and walked away, his boots tapping rhythmically on the granite floor. His former audience parted rapidly before him as he exited the arena and climbed onto his motorcycle.

The crimson warrior glanced down at his left arm. Already the orange stain had almost faded from his armor, repelled either by his antiviral software or his regenerative abilities. Zero shrugged, patted the katana sheathed at his belt, and roared on over to the Cainson domain.

He stopped, staring with jaw agape, at what he saw when he arrived. Zero parked the motorcycle in the driveway and dismounted slowly, looking up and up the spindly tower of a structure. A few passers-by, similarly gawking, hurried away when they saw the young man approach. Zero kept his gaze on the drastically altered house.

"Flash, what have you done?"

Suddenly, the door to the house burst open and a burst of light shot out from within. Zero flicked the sabre from its sheath as he ducked and rolled across the concrete driveway. His legs gathered beneath him to spring, and the warrior peered at the source of the attack.


	3. Chapter 2: House

**Chapter Two: House**

Zero crouched at the ready, sabre in hand, as his eyes recovered from the blinding burst of light. Several yards behind him a patch of blackstone road cooled from cherry-red to scorched grey.

Flash Cainson stepped out of the doorway from which the blast had come, his upstanding brown hair waving slightly in the wind. He snapped his fingers.

"Hmph. Needs more flash, less bang. Live testing sure is fun with you around, Zero!"

The crimson warrior relaxed and sheathed his sabre. "Can you analyze this katana for me, Flash? It ripped right through my shield." He presented the weapon.

Flash beamed. "Amazing! I made that program impervious to every weapon type I knew about! This is why we're friends, Zero. You bring me new data to pick at." The hacker looked up at the warrior with bright amber eyes and wrapped him in a tight hug. Zero stood immobile as he broke off and took the katana.

For a long moment Flash merely gazed at the weapon. On the other side of the street, a little boy glanced at the wild-eyed brunet's multicolored patchwork tunic and stared, enraptured. His mother quickly shielded the boy's eyes and hustled him away.

The programmer looked up at Zero again, grinning madly. "Come in. I'll have your new shield program ready in a few minutes, and there are a few other updates I made while you were busy." He dashed into his house.

Zero strode into the teetering tower, glancing around to see what other damage the house's returned owner had done since he'd seen it last. The crimson warrior's first glance around the front hall instantly slaughtered his curiosity.

He closed the massive metal front door behind him and maneuvered carefully through the endless chaos of Flash's house. Knickknacks, collectibles, tools, valuable programs, art, and old data storage devices formed the stars of a diverse cast of characters, all of them 107 percent dedicated to making the area appear totally uninhabitable. If a tornado had created this much mess, it would be the kind of twister about which other storms wrote endless, incoherent fanfictions.

The crimson warrior glanced away from the devastation as a tall, slender young brunette in a quiet grey housedress appeared from a side door.

"Welcome, Zero Doppler. I'm very sorry to present such a filthy house to my honorable guest, after all you've done for me." Iris bowed deeply in the Japanese fashion, her hands clasped in front of her.

"No apologies necessary. I'm always honored to be your guest, Iris," Zero smiled as he inclined his head to her.

She nodded. "A generous compliment, sir. I'm always honored to have you here, and especially today. I would like to congratulate and thank you properly for your defeat of the gentleman warrior Matsuda. But first, would you care for some tea?"

Zero smiled wider. "How could I refuse? You prepare tea like a princess."

Iris bowed, still unsmiling, and gestured at a nearby stuff-covered table. As she completed the motion, the random items of junk shrunk into tiny, stylized versions of themselves. She swept the compressed object files into her purse for the moment, her expression downcast.

On the newly cleared table space, the brunette called up her custom china program. A teapot, three matching cups and saucers, and an insulator to protect the table materialized underneath her hands. A river of steam rose from the teapot as Iris' hands waved slowly above the china, and a glorious smell wafted through the air. Zero inhaled deeply.

"I remember the first time I drank your tea. Do you?"

Iris blushed slightly as she continued summoning the beverage, every movement adding a subtle ingredient to its fresh green flavor. "I'm sorry, it was some time ago."

"You were new in this part of town. I had just graduated from prep school, a week before my first semester at HFA. Our parents…" he blinked. "Yours invited mine over, and brought me too."

The brunette nodded. "They told me to prepare the tea, and I was so nervous I must have messed it—"

"It was delicious. Everyone said so. You did your House proud."

Iris glanced up at him, amber eyes wide, as she poured him a cup full. "But you said it was bland, and bitter. I remember that part, sir."

"You went to your room, holding back tears. We left soon after," Zero continued, gazing unseeing into his cup. "I asked Dad for my year's allowance in advance, and got together my savings. I went to that specialist programmer, the sensorsmith, and blew it all on an olfactory enhancement. Do you remember, I came back later that day without my parents?"

Iris blinked, her lips forming a perfect little 'o'. "You insisted I prepare tea again, and told me you'd never tasted anything so good. Sir, are you saying…"

"Yes. It was only bland the first time because I wasn't programmed to detect subtle flavors." He brought the cup to his mouth, found the beverage a little hot, and blew on it to cool it.

"Zero, are you telling me you spent all that money to improve your sense of taste, all because I flounced away like a spoiled little girl when you said you didn't like it the first time?" the brunette put her hands over her mouth, blushing furiously.

"Yes. It was worth it. Still is." He took a sip. "Delicious. I never have found its equal."

"Many thanks," she replied on a slightly tremulous note. "I'm happy you like it, sir."

There was a long silence as each took a draw on their cup. Zero closed his eyes and smiled. Eventually Iris' shoulders relaxed a little, and she giggled.

"It's funny, now that I think of it. I'm as silly now as I was then, feeling so ashamed of the way my house looks."

Zero opened his eyes again. "Huh?"

The brunette rubbed her arm, lips curling in a wry smile. "Nothing important. I hope Fla—"

At that moment a burst of light and noise rent the ceiling. Zero, gifted with enhanced warrior sensibilities, perceived Flash's split-second descent from the ceiling as if the mad programmer were sinking through tar. The crimson warrior glanced first to the new hole leading to the second story, then to the spot where Flash would land. A small metal tool whose purpose Zero would never know lay on the black tile floor right where the mad programmer would very soon crash to a halt. Finally, the young man looked to Iris.

Just as Flash smashed into the floor and the tool, Iris snapped her fingers. Flying fragments of metal dissolved into mist that faded harmlessly into the air around the tea table. Flash knelt up and shook himself, then picked up the red and white kite shield he'd landed with.

"New shield, Zero. Katana broke, but I can remake it."

Zero accepted the proffered piece of armor and strapped it to his back, then took another draw of his steaming green beverage.

Iris sipped her tea, her countenance now placid. "If you two gentlemen are done discussing hardware, then we must speak of other things. Flash, if you would consider having some tea."

Her brother swallowed his drink in one gulp and muttered something. The empty china cup morphed into something unspeakable and skittered away.

Iris barely offered it a glance. "Gentlemen, we are exiles. We have no place in this town any longer, and both of you have told me separately you don't want to return to college. I'm sorry I got us into this mess, but there's no way around it now. We have to leave Windy Fountains."

"Fine with me," Zero shrugged.

"Where do we go, Sissy?" Flash took a fist-sized eyeball from his belt and started to poke at it with what appeared to be a screwdriver. Iris smiled at him.

"As both of you gentlemen know, we live only a few days' drive away from the city of Stormy Hill. It's a city ruled by plutocrats, meaning we don't have to worry about references or anything like that to get our Houses reinstated inside its borders; so long as we have money, we'll be all right. Flash, I can't thank you enough for providing so much gil through your inventions."

"It's all good in the hood." He tilted his head to the side, nearly parallel to the ground, and held the eyeball up against the light. It jiggled slightly.

Zero frowned. "I challenged and killed a Sigma cultist in your name. They'll find us wherever we go."

"I'm sure we can handle any kind of problems they give us," Iris replied with a laugh. It was a laugh like the ring of silversteel bells: pure, sweet, and penetrating. The crimson warrior's primary processor skipped a beat at the sound.

As she continued, he looked deep into her glittering eyes, their irises the color of amber at midnight. "Really, you two are beyond belief. I'm the luckiest woman alive to have such a sweet, talented programmer for a brother, and such a strong, steadfast warrior for a friend. I don't know what I'd ever do without you gentlemen."

"Hmmm." The blond's gaze refocused. "What's the plan?"

Flash glanced up from his eyeball. "Hey, plan? What?"

Iris smiled, her eyes glinting darkly. "We leave town tonight."


	4. Chapter 3: Exodus

**Chapter Three: Exodus**

Malon Haolin awoke at dawn. As always, her eyes lit first thing upon the framed picture on the nightstand by her bed. Several pictures of Zero as a teenager in his red-and-black armor adorned the walls, but the boy in the photograph on the nightstand wore no armor and bore little resemblance to the warrior whose image decorated the rest of the room. A young girl with blue hair and hazel eyes stood arm-in-arm with the boy in the photo. They looked maybe eleven or twelve years old. Both of them were laughing at some joke lost to memory.

Malon opened the window, allowing in a fresh morning breeze that set her long, unbrushed hair dancing around her face. She squinted at the daylight shining brightly from a sky the same color as her hair. As she had every morning for the past week, the young woman craned her neck out the open second-story window to get a look at Zero's house, the Doppler domain. Her eyes popped a little wider when she saw that the window shutters had been drawn, but then she yawned and began to dress for the day.

Her clothing programs up and running, Malon wandered down the stairs to the living room of her house. Her brothers, already dressed in their blue and grey armor, looked up from the teleconsole. The large-screened video feed automatically minimized itself as they looked away, but continued to blare the soundtrack to a rerun of the latest celebrity warrior duel.

"Any sleep, Lonnie?" the eldest son, Kai, asked with a grin.

"Any Zero dreams, Mallie?" the younger son, Matt, followed up with a more juvenile version of the same smirk.

Malon yawned again. "Matt, come up with your own lines. You're Kai's brother, not his backup copy."

Matt grimaced at her and looked to Kai for support. At that point their mother appeared from upstairs and contributed to the conversation, but the doorbell chimed. Malon jumped up to answer, ignoring her family's discussion.

The one-way video feed streaming from the porch to the inner side of the door showed another young woman about Malon's age. She was clothed in a glossy golden-brown to yellow dress that complimented her deep brown skin and black hair. The blue-haired young woman opened the door and let her neighbor into the front room, apart from the rest of the family.

"Tammy, it's good to see you, but aren't you busy with the Hall baby today?"

"Her parents haven't gone off yet. My father tole me when he came back from work at the data center this morning, he tole me there's been a domain change. That Zero Doppler and both the Cainsons have gone, out of town. They left their houses wi' Elder Gau and took their data with 'em. I don' know when they left, but I knew you'd wanna know, so here I am." Tammy took a breath and let it out slowly.

Malon laughed weakly, pushing a strand of sky-blue hair out of her face. "You—you're kidding, of course…he couldn't leave, not without saying goodbye, I mean, he'd tell me, right? I know he would tell me. He would. Why would you say that stuff, Tammy?" She laughed again, but it sounded more like a choke.

Tammy's expression remained totally solemn. "You know I'm tellin'—"

"NO!" Malon screamed in the other girl's face. "I won't listen! You're lying! Tell me you're lying!"

Kai and Matt Haolin appeared on either side of the women as if by magic. Malon pushed them away and dashed up to her room. Tammy stood in the front room, tears forming slowly in her eyes. Malon's mother sighed and brought the young woman over to the table, where they prepared a tea tray to bring up to Malon's room.

00000

Zero looked back into the distance, peering through the dust clouds generated by their open-topped four-seater truck. Despite his acute warrior senses, he could no longer see his hometown, Windy Fountains. Flash rattled on about compression ratios and cross-domain compatibility to the preoccupied young man. Iris, sitting behind them, smiled serenely at the blond. Her beautiful traveling clothes disclosed only enough about her form to give a healthy man's mind incentive to imagine.

Zero turned again to face forward and tilted his head back, considering the bright blue sky. Nothing at all worth noticing appeared. Nevertheless, the warrior's gaze remained in the endless blue for a long time before returning to a careful sweep of the horizon line.


	5. Chapter 4: The Road

**Chapter Four: The Road**

Zero's long blond hair streamed out into the wind. One hand held the steering wheel while Flash lectured disjointedly on partitioned rebooting from the front passenger seat. The mad programmer's fingers worked ceaselessly while he talked, applying all manner of tiny tools to his latest project: a tiny metal head with a huge eye socket above its mock nose. Iris hid a yawn behind one delicate hand, her own dark brown hair bound in a loose braid. Her other hand held a small teleconsole with which the young woman scanned the news.

Every few minutes, a vehicle traveling the other direction zipped by on their left, making the merest whisper of rushing air. No cars traveled either behind or in front of their truck within over three miles. Grassy, undeveloped plains, broken occasionally by small groups of buildings, stretched into the distance on either side of the endless road. Flash, in his tireless ranting, had noted a few hours ago that the real estate market looked open for the taking.

Slowly, the bright blue sky deepened to violet. Night began to fall. Finally, Iris spoke up from the backseat.

"If it pleases you gentlemen, I think it's time for a rest. We've been driving for two days nonstop and one must sleep sometime."

Zero nodded. "That would suit me. Flash?"

The programmer looked furtively from side to side. "Yes. I need to reboot. So many…changes." He lapsed into silence, digging away at the little head with his tools.

Zero smiled at Flash with wrinkled brows. Then he turned to Iris. "Just say when."

They drove on for a while as darkness descended and Iris looked for a potential campsite. At last, the young woman spoke again.

"There, sir. I like the look of that river, off to the right. Would you mind going off-road for a few hundred feet?"

Zero shrugged. "Hold on tight, everybody." The crimson warrior slowed the truck down to a quarter its cruising speed and pulled it off into the grass.

In a minute or two they arrived at the chosen spot on the riverbank Iris had noticed. Flash fell bodily out of the truck as they came to a stop, then continued vibrating on the ground as if taken by a seizure. The many implements attached to his belt and pants jangled, clanked, or wobbled. Zero hauled the gangly young man up by his collar and set him on his feet.

"Lots of shaking. Lots. Thanks lots." Flash successfully kept his balance after another attempt. His tunic of many clashing colors glowed unashamedly in the dark. "I need. Camp. No more driving."

Iris bowed to her brother. "An excellent idea. I think any spot around here would do."

Zero glanced around, paused, and glanced around again. He gestured to Flash, who cartwheeled over, and put his hand very briefly to the programmer's forehead, passing a message directly to the young man's communication buffer. He could have beamed the information in a private message, but direct transfer was more secure. Aloud the warrior said, "Calm down. We won't be driving until morning, I promise. Go ahead and set up camp."

Flash nodded and gibbered quietly to himself, waving his arms in short, choppy motions and occasionally tapping his feet. As he worked, pieces of data like tiny glowing particles coalesced from thin air to form larger objects, slowly putting together a pair of small buildings. A light appeared in each building, clearly illuminating the entire area. Iris strolled over, carrying a couple of small memory units marked "TravelBedroomIris.exe" and "TravelBedroomBoys.exe" respectively. She set one of the units in one of the growing cabins, then walked into the other and knelt down to open her custom bedroom program. The young woman jumped up with wide eyes as the half-finished building suddenly reformed into a translucent grey sphere, locking her in and everything else out.

She looked around the darkened campsite. The other cabin had disappeared, as had her brother and friend. Then everything burst into flames.

Bullets ricocheted loudly off Iris' protective prison, but the sounds echoed into the sphere as if muffled through several feet of mud. Her hands over her mouth, the young woman looked left, right, and behind her, braided hair whipping about her face. She didn't see the source of the gunfire. What she did see defied description.

Iris had watched celebrity warrior duels, action movies, and even a real live duel from time to time in her life. None of it compared to this.

Even inside her impenetrable shell, the young woman trembled and screamed as violence erupted all around her. Dark figures flitted around the edge of her vision, throwing wild shadows as flashes of light burst from their weapons. A second massive fireball at least forty feet wide flashed through the campsite, and in the corner of her eye Iris finally caught sight of Zero.

The red-and-black armored warrior shot through her field of vision so quickly she wondered for a second if he had ever been there at all. His sabre flashing like lightning in the dark, Zero left another shadowy figure in pieces in his wake. It was then, in the dull red light of the glowing cinders, that Iris had her first glimpse of the crimson warrior's battle fury.

His face alone stole the young woman's breath. His jaws clenched tightly and his eyes narrowed to slits, Zero bared his teeth as he dismembered his latest foe. Random data and other bits of his victims had splattered all over him. He looked a foot taller and at least forty pounds heavier than the man he'd been just minutes earlier. Iris staggered backwards, away from the sight of him. She fell against the curving wall of her spherical prison, watching with wide eyes as the crimson warrior disappeared in a blur of movement.

In another moment it was over, all the enemies felled in a matter of seconds. The gunfire, screaming, and violence ended abruptly, leaving a hole of silence as wide and dark as a starless sky. Iris fell out of the grey bubble into someone's arms, and looked up into his face.

"Miss me?" Flash winked.

Zero appeared to one side, still covered in gore, and held up a disconnected head by its raven-black ponytail. Glowing bits of data dripped out of the severed neck exactly like blood. "Got the last one."

Iris squeaked and hid her face in Flash's tunic. The gangly young programmer mumbled something unintelligible, and a much smaller version of a familiar grey sphere encased the gruesome remainder of their attacker. Zero strode over and tossed the translucent sphere into their truck.

Flash grinned. "That makes a matched set, Zero. Too bad you couldn't keep more of them intact."

"They were fast. I couldn't risk it."

The mad programmer laughed. "Too fast for you? There were less than a dozen. You're slipping."

Zero smiled. "Thanks." Glancing at Iris, Zero beamed a private message to Flash. _See to her. She might need some distance from me after all that. _

Flash nodded and held his little sister tightly around the shoulders. "Craziness is gone, Iris. Come on, some more bumpy-bumpy ride in the truck and we'll set up camp for real, quiet riverbank, just like you wanted." He guided her to the backseat of the truck and gently buckled her in.

Iris shivered. "Thank you, Flash. I'm sorry to be such a burden." Her brother nodded, his face turning blank, as he deleted the secondary fires started by his flame burst attacks.

The young woman looked over to Zero. The crimson warrior carried himself with the same easy poise as before the fight, his brow unwrinkled and his shoulders relaxed. He also seemed to have cleaned off. The young man carried the singed bedroom programs over and set them in the bed of the truck, next to several grey spheres about the size of Old Earth watermelons. Iris shuddered at the thought of what lay within the translucent prisons.

"Zero, sir, are we really going to keep those?"

The crimson warrior looked away. "With their virtual drives intact, they can be rebooted for a proper trial and execution. Besides, we need to assure the authorities these monsters are down for the count." He turned and gazed down into Iris' eyes, totally black in the dark of night. His own eyes seemed hard as sapphires. "I've heard of them. They were cold-blooded killers. Flash and I did what we had to."

He took a breath. "I'm sorry we couldn't warn you. They might've realized we knew they were there. This way, we got the drop on them."

Iris looked at him, tears forming in her eyes. She frowned suddenly and unbuckled herself from the seat.

"Please accept my apologies. I owe you both my life, and I've been acting like a little girl." She bowed deeply to them. "I suppose it's lucky they came to us before they hurt anyone else."

Zero's eyebrows rose a fraction and the corners of his mouth tugged upward slightly. "You are much more than a little girl, Iris. You are a woman, and you are strong." He turned away quickly. "Flash. Where are you going?"

The mad programmer sprinted down towards the river, his tunic dancing around his lanky body. "A boat! All for me!"

00000

An hour or two later, the three of them relaxed in their new camp. Steady white light shone from an orb hanging above the two temporary cabins. Flash sat at a table outside the little buildings and pried with a flanged device at a set of crystals encased in a metal box. He mumbled the word "stealth" over and over, alternately like a curse and like a mantra. A fully automatic machine gun the length of Flash's arm lay on the table waiting for its new owner, Zero, who had gone to sleep to process the previous days' events and make automatic system updates. Iris lay on her back in her own bed, holding her small teleconsole above her head.

Its sound had been turned off, but the little TC displayed a series of windows with text and graphics. The foremost window showed off various images of a set of darkly armored men, as well as one man dressed in a green silk tunic and pants. One of the photos showed a fuzzy image of a boat. Captions underneath the photos gave names, known aliases, and weapons, in the instances where the authorities could obtain this information. A title blazed above the pictures: "Wanted! Armed and dangerous!" Last, but by no means least, a footer appeared across the bottom: "Reward for their capture, dead or alive: 600,000Ψ."

Iris let out a deep, trembling sigh and turned off the teleconsole. With that done, she removed a small diary, complete with stylus, from a hidden pocket of her blouse. Wherever the stylus touched the page the paperlike substance instantly darkened from white to black, with no apparent transfer of ink or graphite. The young woman wrote a few new sentences in her own personal shorthand.

"_Got lucky. Bandits found us by water, as hoped."_

"_Terrifying, but turned out okay. Over before it started."_

"_Zero is on his way."_ She paused for a moment and shuddered. _"Better than expected."_

Iris' lips curved in a small, private smile. She tucked the journal away and began to deactivate her clothing programs, pulling the virus-proof covers up to her chin. As she lapsed into sleep mode, the tall, slender young woman's face relaxed into an expression of cherubic innocence that could stop a man's core processor.


	6. Chapter 5: Ghosts

**Chapter Five: Ghosts**

The window frame gave way with a muffled snap, and Malon Haolin slid stealthily into the room beyond. Her long hair, done up in a tight bun, shimmered navy-blue in the dark of night. She squeaked slightly as her shin knocked up against the bedframe, and the young woman pinched herself with a solemn expression.

Malon activated a little flashlight and directed its hard white beam around the small space. Zero Doppler's spare furniture decorated a bedroom that hadn't changed once in seven years. The young woman looked around for a moment, gaping at the familiarity of it all. She still recalled the last time she'd seen the inside of this room.

00000

Malon danced around the dirty-blond, green-eyed boy, laughing and shrieking as only little girls can. "You're scared! You're really scared, you big silly!"

The boy, already red as a beet, denied this vehemently. "Am not! I'm gonna be the best ever when I get my powers! I'm not scared of nothin'!"

"That's right, 'cause you're scared of everything!"

"Hah! I'm not scared of you-ou!"

Malon turned away and stood still. "Is that so." Her voice had lost all its humor.

Her young friend's expression pinched with worry. "Hey, Malon, come on, wha—"

The girl spun around and shoved her face into his. He staggered back and shouted as the visage of a twisted, tentacled beast leered right in his face. The blond boy fell and knocked his head against the bedframe, then curled up, whimpering with pain. Malon deactivated the monster-face illusion and knelt down beside him.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry—"

"Ouch, ouch ouch ouch, ouch, don't touch!" he whimpered. "Your power is scary, Malon. Don't do that!"

She hugged him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're not scared, Greenie. You're not scared."

After a moment, the emerald-eyed boy pushed her away and got to his feet. He put his fists to his hips and stuck out his chest. "Soon I won't be Greenie any more." Malon also got to her feet, smiling at her young friend.

00000

Malon flicked the flashlight's beam over various parts of the room, and she crept slowly towards the doorway. The young woman's dull black bodysuit and slippers made no detectable noise as she snuck through the hallway and into the master bedroom. She'd never been in there before, but saw nothing to catch her attention on her first viewing. It had been deserted a long time, just like the rest of the house. She moved on, down the stairs to the family room. As she did, another memory forced its way to the surface.

00000

"Why can't I see him?" she asked plaintively, her hands clasped up in front of her.

Hinata Doppler smiled down at the blue-haired girl, but the corners of her mouth twitched oddly. "He's not…steady on his feet yet. Let him rest and come back tomorrow, and I promise y—"

"Who's there?" A boy's voice asked from the stairs.

Malon gasped and stared at the voice's source. "Greenie?"

Red and black armor with occasional white highlights covered the boy's body. The rounded red headpiece ran from the bridge of his nose, up over his forehead in a widening V shape, all the way to the base of his skull and curved under his cheeks to protect either side of his jawbone. It allowed the boy's eyes a wide range of vision and left most of his nose, mouth, cheeks, and part of his eyebrows exposed to view. A short ponytail of corn blond hair sprouted like a fountain from a small hole in the upper back part of the helmet. Thin, supple black material ran from the bottom of the scarlet headpiece down to the collarbone. A shallow, porous, dishlike depression on either side funneled sound through the helmet to his ears.

His chest, no longer quite so thin or scrawny, sported a red chestplate to protect everything from his collarbone down to the bottom of his ribcage. A backplate covered roughly the same areas behind him, and both pieces of armor hinged together with the shoulderplates to allow the warrior child free movement. The same black material protecting his neck clung to every inch of skin without red armor to guard it, and probably lay beneath the armor as well.

Crimson plating covered the boy's legs, arms, hips, and groin in such a way that he could move in every way combat could conceivably demand, while the flexible black bodysuit covered everything else. Red boots and black gloves protected his extremities, a red-and-white shield hung from straps on his back, and a sheathed blade hung from a latch on his hip. V-shaped white crests adorned the armor in various places.

Other changes became obvious very quickly. The boy stood over four inches taller now, and muscles rippled under the black bodysuit. His hair had changed from dirty blond to pure corn blond, and his eyes had switched from green to crystal blue, but most striking to Malon was the new cast of his face. The eternal look of uncertainty and apprehension had gone, replaced with something else.

"I don't know any Greenie." The warrior child descended the stairs slowly, his eyes flicking warily from his mother to Malon. "I am Zero."

"Right, of course," the girl said, pinching herself. "Zero, you're a warrior!"

"I am. Who and what are you?"

00000

Malon Haolin awoke from the memory with a jolt. Noises of rustling clothing and faint whispers echoed weakly through the door to the front hall, and the young woman hid. Her already black-clad body faded to the appearance of a shadow, and she slunk into a dark corner.

A trio of faded grey figures melted through the wall in front of Malon's eyes. She stared openmouthed at their ghastly masks and cloaks, then watched as they rifled through the furniture and appliances around the home. They put their heads inside the couches, took a look at the teleconsoles, investigated under rugs, and inspected the walls, but seemed to find nothing of value. An hour passed, Malon's shadowy shape waiting motionless in the corner, as the grey creatures searched the area. Finally, the trio of them moved on to the second story. Two of them ascended straight through the ceiling while the third took the stairs.

As at last the trio disappeared from sight, Malon moved again. Still camouflaged as a shadow, she crept speedily through the darkness of the house and peered out the front window, but saw no other grey men or a vehicle that might belong to them. Casting a quick glance to the ceiling, the young woman crouched in a corner with a view of the front window. After another five minutes' wait to be sure the intruders would not quickly return to the first story, Malon slipped out the back door of Zero Doppler's deserted house. Her core processor churned madly in her chest as she returned to the Haolin domain.

00000

Eight hours later, the morning after Malon learned of Zero's departure, her mother Christina Haolin discovered she had gone missing. Two minutes after that, Malon's father Argosal Haolin found a note wrapped around the majority of his daughter's sky-blue hair, explaining in vague, hurried terms why she left. Two minutes afterward, Kai and Matt Haolin discovered the elder brother's motorcycle to be missing. In the next thirty seconds the men of the Haolin family uttered more oaths and curses than in the past ten years combined.

Meanwhile, Malon sped away on the open road, her iridescently black, shoulder length hair whipping in the wind. Steely grey eyes, not hazel, peered out into the horizon. Most drastic, however, was the change in her bearing. The woman was grinning and laughing as she had not since Zero's christening, seven long years ago.


	7. Chapter 6: False Advertising

**Chapter Six: False Advertising**

Flash chanted and gesticulated, his tunic blinding passers-by on the street as he programmed the last elements of the new Cainson House. Inside the spacious parlor of the house, Zero and Iris exchanged words.

"It doesn't fit." The crimson warrior folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his leather easy chair. His tea sat cooling in front of him.

"I see your point, sir, but consider our position. We are new here. We need your strength with us, not just your service." The young lady of the house wore a full length, pastel green morning dress with a slit up to the knee and a classic rounded neckline, as well as long white gloves.

"I can't live as a houseguest. Either I serve you as a hired sword or I find my own domain."

Iris' eyes narrowed a tiny fraction of an inch, and she too sat back in her chair. "I am sorry that our company is so poor you feel you must distance yourself from us." She crossed her legs and took a sip of tea.

Zero's eyes popped wide at this new tactic. "What?"

The brunette turned away. "It is a sad measure of my limited wisdom that I mistook your feelings towards us of the house of Cainson for something they were not. Please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding."

The blond warrior sat speechless for a full minute, his combat-oriented processor working furiously to figure out a counterattack. He choked.

"What?"

"I will have your share of the bounty from the river bandits wired directly to your Zephyr Bank account. I am sure Flash would be willing to find you an apartment. He's very talented."

Zero floundered like a man dropped into a glacial stream. He found himself clutching the strap of his duffel bag, which currently held his few non-combat possessions.

"What?"

"Now, don't dawdle around here just to be polite to me. I'm sure you have a lot to do, with finding your own domain and all of that." Her eyes lit on his with cool indifference. "I think there's a nice hotel just a couple of blocks away. You should be able to find it easily enough."

The blond gripped his luggage, frozen in place. Iris inspected her nails. "Please, don't let me detain you."

Finally Zero stood. Bowing in a jerky, uncertain movement, the warrior retreated out into the front hall. Rubbing his forehead, he emerged into the crowded street with his duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

"What?"

He turned to Flash, but the mad programmer didn't seem to notice his friend's presence. Neither did most of the crowd, who were either watching the lunatic finish his programming or shielding their eyes from his tunic as they walked past.

One person seemed to notice the crimson warrior, however. A redhead with voluptuous curves and suggestive clothing split off from the crowd and gave Zero a friendly hello.

"Need someone to show you around, handsome?"

The young warrior blinked and started to smile, but abruptly his expression froze. "I'll find my way, thanks." He moved off into the crowd, no longer smiling, but the redhead tagged along.

"Now you're lying to me. I'm hurt." She pouted at him.

Zero shook his head again. "Don't waste your time. I'm not your type."

"What, the rude bully type?"

"Stop following me."

Finally the devilishly attractive redhead complied, and watched him go. Once he was out of sight, the woman sidled into an alleyway and switched forms. Her exaggerated curves shrank to more ordinary feminine proportions, her hair darkened to black, her eyes faded to grey, and the provocative clothing gave way to a plain traveling outfit. Finally, the structure of her face changed slightly. Malon, disguised in another illusion, stepped out of the alleyway.

"Time for plan number two," she muttered.

Zero strode down the street towards a large building marked by a sign that read, "Stormy Hill Domain Registry, LOW LOW RATES" in big flashing letters. Not that big flashing letters distinguished the building from its neighbors. In the light of day, the streets looked garish with advertisements. At night, looking too hard at the panoramic view could probably cause blindness. The crimson warrior had his hand on the door when a shriek split through the noise of the ever present crowds.

"Don't touch me!" Malon, still disguised, pushed herself away from a male warrior with orange and black scale mail armor. The warrior gaped at her in surprise. His problems instantly multiplied as Zero appeared before him faster than thought.

His eyes wide and his face pale, the unlucky male warrior looked up at his doom. "I'm innocent! I don't even know her!"

Zero regarded the man's trembling face through sapphire slits. "Keep it that way."

He turned to Malon. A dark look appeared on his face as he beheld her apparent terror, but the young man sensed without looking that the warrior with the orange armor was gone. He forced himself to smile at the raven-haired young woman. "He won't be troubling you anytime soon."

Malon sobbed, and she gave her friend a tight hug. Zero's smiled faded at this display of emotion from a complete stranger. He patted her shoulder and waited for her to unfasten herself. After a good ten seconds, during which the young man began to wrinkle his forehead and blush, the young woman looked up into his face, crying still.

"He'll be back once he sees you're gone," she managed between sobs.

Zero shook his head, his face returning to its typical placid expression. "No. I won't allow it."

"H-he knows where I live! What'll I do?"

Looking down at her, he sighed. "Come on. You need your mind taken off things." He pulled her through the crowds to an expensive theater he'd seen earlier. "What's your name, by the way?"

00000

Two and a half hours later, the two of them emerged from the theater with a mob of people. Laughter bubbled through the afternoon air.

"Come on, what was it like?"

"Yuki, it was a chess match. There's was nothing exciting about it." Zero laughed at Malon's petulant expression.

"Not the chess match, you big silly. I mean after! You beat a college chess master your first time playing the game, that had to be a riot."

"I'd been staring at the board strategizing for twenty-six hours straight. No one was there to see when I beat him and neither of us felt like talking about it. I went to a more advanced course the next day." He drew in a big breath and let it all out. "How do you get me to talk so much?"

She giggled and linked her arm with his. "I'll tell you later." Malon, a.k.a. Yuki, pulled the warrior along like a virgin leading along a great, muscled unicorn lassoed with a strand of hair. Zero allowed himself to be steered toward the Heavenly Wind hotel, and within a few minutes they stood in the lobby.

"My room's up this way, number 442," the young woman said. She tried to lead the crimson warrior over to the stairs, but he didn't budge. The young man looked down at her, his expression somber.

"I'm sorry if I misled you. I'm not the type to share a bed so casually."

He began to turn away, and Malon slapped at his face. "How dare you! You beast, you filthy beast! Don't try to tell me I'm some kind of slut!" She cradled her throbbing hand. His ever present helmet had thwarted the traditional female sign of outrage.

Zero stopped in midstep. The crimson warrior turned to face Yuki squarely and removed his helmet. His long blond hair, when hanging freely from his unprotected head, fell all the way to his waist.

"Here. You deserve another chance." He turned the other cheek.

Yuki gritted her teeth as tears sprang to her eyes. Her face burning red, the black-haired beauty dropped to her knees.

"That man from before, he'll be back if he knows I'm a-a-alone," she sobbed. "I j-j-just need to…to make him think someone stronger already has me…"

Zero crouched down and put his arms around her. "I get it, I get it. I'll put on a show for the fool. Don't take this the wrong way," he whispered.

The young man pulled Yuki to her feet and kissed her lips.

After a long moment, he broke off and led her upstairs, his helmet held under one arm. His face totally placid, the warrior beamed a private message to Iris and Flash Cainson. _We have a problem. We've been followed._

_You sound worried, Zero. Do you need Flash's help to dispose of them? _Iris' voice sounded in his head. A stream of gibberish arrived from the mad programmer himself.

_Not that kind of problem. It's Malon Haolin, but she's calling herself Yuki and she's trying to get me alone._

_Woo hoo hooo! _

_That's very dangerous,_ Iris beamed to the warrior. _Her brothers will arrive to protect her honor._ She paused. _How, sir, did you figure out that it was Malon? She is very adept with personal illusions. Usually the only way to discover the truth is by feel._

_Never mind that._

_Woo hoo hah hoo hah hoooooo!_

Zero entered the cramped hotel room and Malon shut the door behind him. The young woman looked at the ground. "Zero, I have a confession to make."

He sighed. "I know. You're not named Yuki. You're Malon Haolin." _Flash, hack into the system registry and run a search for her brothers and father._

_Dooly dooly done, Casanova._

She gaped at him. "How long have you known?"

"From the beginning," the warrior lied calmly. He set his helmet on the single table in the cramped little room. _If either of you find them, watch them. If you have to, stall for me. I'm on the fourth floor of the Heavenly Wind hotel, and I'll need some time._

00000

In another part of the city, Flash collapsed to the floor of his workshop with laughter. Iris, putting on her shoes in the entry way to the house, frowned deeply.

00000

Malon's emotional subprocessor skipped a beat. Grinning up at the warrior, Malon dispelled the illusion that masked the appearance of her face. In a moment, her skin tanned slightly, her nose became more slender, her chin strengthened marginally, and the dimples left. A tiny scar appeared in the very corner of her forehead. As the rest of her returned to normal, however, the young woman's hair remained iridescent black and her eyes grey.

"And here I thought I was such an actress." She stared into his crystal blue eyes. "What are you going to do now?"

"First, tell me why you followed me." He folded his arms across his chest.

"All right." She gestured at a chair in front of the little table. "Well, take a seat already. I'll have room service send up some tea."

00000

Zero sipped the hotel tea and tried not to make a face. It was barely even lukewarm. "So. Ghost men are looking for me."

"I know it's hard to believe, but—"

"It's not that. I'm just not worried about that kind of thing right now." Zero put down his tea and stood. He stepped around the table and pulled Malon up to him, stroking her face. Her features froze as a totally secure message passed into her communication buffer from his hand. _I'm sorry to get you mixed up in my problems, Malon. Don't take this the wrong way, either._

"What—"

"Don't speak. Everything's going to turn out fine." He kissed her again and again, and she returned the favor. Passionately. Then the walls exploded.


	8. Chapter 7: Beauty and the Beast

**Chapter Seven: Beauty and the Beast**

Room 442 of the Heavenly Wind Hotel exploded into a trillion shattered particles. Zero, on a rooftop forty feet away and two stories up, donned his helmet. As the headpiece clicked into place over his corn-blond hair, the yellow mane blipped directly from a free-hanging state into a ponytail sprouting out the back of the warrior's crimson helmet.

"Stay low." He shoved Malon to the ground and disappeared in a blur of movement. The young woman scowled and peeked through the waist-high railing that ran around the flat rooftop. Rubbing her scuffed knees, Malon focused first on Zero, who stood on a slanting rooftop several stories down. Then her eyes flicked over to the nine foot tall monster standing across from him on the same building. Her mind worked frantically to process what had just happened: the kissing, the sudden jerk of movement, hearing the explosion, and then her childhood friend shoving her to the ground, out of sight. Her glare melted away as she realized the truth, and Malon gawked at Zero's huge opponent.

Zero gazed coolly at the beast, his sabre drawn and his shield ready. He quickly beamed Flash a message. _They intercepted my messages to you earlier. The hotel was hacked. A room exploded. Find the hacker and neutralize him._ Aloud the warrior demanded, "State your name and the name and rank of your commanding officer."

The monstrosity opposing Zero growled, the sound resonating through his massive body. Thick brownish-black fur covered every part of him like bristly armor. His general form and proportions recalled those of a bear from Old Earth, but bony ridges ran up his nose and forehead, and his paws and jaws were far too large to be at all natural. "My name is Clawbeast. My commander is too holy for scum like you to hear his name." The imaginatively named Clawbeast pointed a black claw nearly a foot long at the crimson warrior. "Surrender at once, or pay the price of defying the Genesis King."

"Sigma is no king. He is a tyrant that will die. Just like you." Zero dashed forward, sabre flicking towards his opponent's massive body faster than Malon's eyes could register.

Clawbeast moved with lesser swiftness, but his massive height and long claws gave him the advantage of reach. Blocking the first flurry of sabre blows with quick slashes of his left claw, the bearlike creature smashed his other paw into Zero's kite shield, leaving long, curved scratches in the red and white metal. The force of the blow sent the crimson warrior skidding down the slanting rooftop.

Malon screamed as Clawbeast leapt at the crimson warrior far faster than his bulk would have suggested possible. Zero's legs collapsed beneath him as the monster closed in, and the young man rolled backwards towards the edge of the roof. Crowds gathering to gawk at the scene above their heads screamed as tiles fell from the third-story rooftop to shatter on the pavement among them.

Zero reached the edge of the roof before his beastlike foe could catch him. The warrior's long, armored legs, tucked beneath him like massive springs, kicked out as they reached the outermost corner of the building. Clawbeast dug in on all fours to prevent himself from falling off the edge, and watched as the crimson warrior's last-second jump carried him all the way across the street to another rooftop fifty feet away.

"Come back here and die, Doppler!" the monster bellowed in a voice that sent the crowds below scurrying for cover.

As he rolled to his feet, Zero sheathed his sabre and flicked his left wrist, calling up a new weapon program. A machine gun as long as his arm appeared mounted on the inner side of his kite shield, braced along the bottom by the arm holding the shield and on the other side by the warrior's right arm. The massive gun's original bandit owner would have raged with envy to see how Flash had improved it since his defeat. Zero pointed the weapon at his enemy and opened fire.

00000

Meanwhile, Flash typed with lightning speed at his specially modified programming teleconsole. Several devices of non-obvious purpose protruded from the back of the little screen, glinting, beeping and occasionally blipping in and out of existence. Tables of data flashed onto and off of the display at well over 128 frames per second.

"Flippin' thing slowing down again," Flash muttered, grimacing, as his bright amber eyes flicked across the monitor. "You hear that, you little snotrag? Speed up or I'll rip you wide open and start from scratch! Again!"

Suddenly Flash's eyes widened and his teeth chattered, but his gaze never left the monitor and his fingers tapped even faster than before. A moving image of a wrinkled old man clad only in a greasy towel popped up in one corner of the screen. The man typed at a teleconsole only slightly less bizarre than Flash's, and he was picking up a little glowing crystal.

"No you don't, you blaggard sonofagun," Flash growled. With one hand, he flicked a tiny metal head with one huge eyeball into the screen of his TC. The display rippled slightly as it absorbed the freakish creation into itself. The mad hacker's typing slowed as he watched the video displaying his wrinkly opponent.

Suddenly the man froze, the crystal shattered, and a death's head with one massive central eye leapt from the monitor and affixed the towel-covered hacker with its unblinking stare. The enemy programmer turned a sickly white and collapsed, his skinny body quickly degrading into its component systems.

Flash cracked his knuckles and patted his TC. "Good little girl. You done good."

At that moment, another video feed opened on the screen. He saw Malon stand up on the roof, her legs and arms moving like a puppet's. Flash swore and started typing so fast his fingers blurred.

00000

Clawbeast snarled as a hail of bullets pounded at his bristly fur armor. He dodged left, right, and down, but Zero kept the massive gun trained faithfully on his bearlike enemy. Not one bullet missed the monster to reach the heavily populated buildings beyond.

Pinned down by the warrior's brutal ranged attack, Clawbeast pulled out one of his own. Pulling in a huge breath, the monster closed his eyes and roared from the bottom of his belly.

Zero flinched and stopped firing, his inner ear sore and ringing. Malon, though farther away and behind the source of the attack, instantly lost all hearing and collapsed in pain. In her weakened state she failed to notice the translucent, buglike creature alighting on the back of her neck.

The crimson warrior gritted his teeth and switched the massive gun to single-shot mode. This time he took aim at Clawbeast's head.

Before he could fire, Flash's tenor interrupted Zero's thoughts. _Malon's being puppet hacked, she'll jump! I'm catching the freaker doing it, but you've got to save her! _

"Help! What's going on?! Help me!" Malon's voice keened past the ringing sensation in Zero's head. "No! Stop! I don't want to jump!" She was over a hundred feet away from him, and two stories higher up—and the only path quick enough to reach her in time lay right through a nine foot tall, heavily armed and armored enemy.

Clawbeast laughed and drew in breath for another roar.

Zero swung the gun around towards his childhood friend. Her iridescent black hair waved around her pale face as she jerked to her feet. Time flowed slower than bitter honey as he sighted his target through the scope.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. He squeezed the trigger.

Malon jerked backwards with an involuntary gasp as the bullet struck. Zero swung the gun around again and shot straight into Clawbeast's open mouth. Just as his roar attack began, the back of the monster's skull exploded in a gory shower of flesh, fur, and shining data that was the blood of Diamond Earth.

Before the beast had even fallen Zero had deactivated the machine gun and returned the shield to his back. As police warriors appeared from the skies and burst out onto the tops of the buildings, the young man leapt and dashed to Malon's still form.

Sirens blazed in the background. The entire battle had lasted only a couple of minutes. Zero knelt beside the youngest daughter of the Haolin family, watching a thick stream of data leak from her shattered knee. _Flash. Send me a patch and an antivirus program. _

_Already done. Kiss her again, you scoundrel. _

Zero put his lips to her forehead, and the hacker's programs passed through him into her. The patch stopped the leak of data from Malon's knee while the antivirus program hunted out and eliminated any malicious software that might have gotten into her through the open wound.

Malon's eyes opened slightly and she moaned. "You've got a funny way of showing a girl you care." Her voice was overly loud and off-tone. She couldn't even hear herself speak through the damage to her ears. Zero put a hand to her cheek.

_I'm sorry. Making out with you was the best way to flush them out. I had to make it look like I'd let my guard down. _ He reached behind the young woman's head and pulled out the shriveled corpse of the bug that had landed on her neck. _About your knee. Flash is quick. But a bullet was the only thing quick enough to stop you from jumping._

Malon gasped as her leg throbbed with agony. Her eyes narrowed. _You filthy beast. You used me._

Flash, watching from his TC, snickered and shoved a little capsule into the screen. _One more kiss, Zero. Are you up to it?_

Zero sighed. _Your kneecap is shattered. Come with me and we'll find a safe place to reboot you. This will take away the pain._ He leaned down to kiss her on the forehead again, but she pulled his head in and pressed her lips against his. The jaw guards on his helmet jabbed roughly at her face. Zero blinked.

_I like that way better,_ Malon giggled as her pain receptors turned off.

"Get away from my sister, punk."

Zero and Malon froze as the safety to a gun clicked off. After staring a long moment into the young woman's wide grey eyes, the crimson warrior looked up into the barrel of an assault shotgun. Slowly, with his hands raised to his head, he stepped back from both Kai and his little sister. Then Matt's battleaxe cleanly severed the young man's spinal cord.


	9. Chapter 8: History

**Chapter Eight: History**

"Yes, Lady. His corpse was destroyed, although the shield did give them some trouble. His head is being taken in for analysis as we speak."

"Excellent. Perhaps they'll be able to lock up his reboot protocol in time, and we can get some real work done."

"Work, Lady?"

"On his head. Without his backhacking systems to deter them, our hackers, seeded among the police force's forensic examiners, would be able to alter Zero's virtual drive at their leisure. It wouldn't be the first time we've changed a warrior's mind to make him join us. Of course, that's an outside chance."

"Why, Lady?"

"Don't be stupid, Vile. His weakness for women aside, Zero Doppler is the perfect warrior. Our examiners probably won't be able to stop him from rebooting in time, not without destroying his virtual drive outright…and I don't want that, for several reasons that I don't feel like explaining. So, back to the point, it is imperative that we have plenty of our programmers on hand to copy as much of his physical schematics as possible. I'm afraid they'll have a short life expectancy, trying to get inside Zero's head."

"Yes, Lady. I will see to it."

"You know, Vile, for a man with a bucket for a helmet, you're an effective lackey. Much better than those tiresome ghost men."

"Thank you, Lady."

00000

Zero's eyes snapped open and he sprang into a ready pose. Or he would have, if he hadn't been bound to a table with a dozen separate sets of manacles. As matters stood, the crimson warrior's efforts didn't so much as force a clank or jingle in his silversteel restraints. After a moment's experimentation, however, he discovered that he could wiggle his fingers.

Zero relaxed. Fingers were a start.

His sapphire eyes roamed around the bare blackness of the ceiling. He noticed several cosmetic cracks in the stone, as well as a very minor stress fracture that could become serious in the event of someone hitting it with a two-ton hammer every day for several months.

The crimson warrior frowned as he recalled the last few moments of his memory before his death and subsequent reboot. "There are other people in this prison. I am Zero. Who are you?"

Someone laughed bitterly. "We're all going to ------- die. Shut your -------, you -------." The voice was a deep bass.

Zero sighed. "Anyone else?"

"Nope. Noone but the ------- priest. He'll be here to ------- us soon. Now shut your ------- up, you -------."

A rhythmic tapping noise approached the prisoners' ears. Footsteps.

"Sigma knows all, brother Hana. Do not disparage him or his servants." The new creature's tones rasped like a cheesegrater against Zero's soul. His face pinched up visibly.

"Silence, brother Hana. I will silence you if you keep on." Pages rustled. "Brother Doppler, I am Uncle Fastener. I see you are new here. I will tell you the story as I have done for your comrade."

"I'm not his ------- comrade, you -------—" his voice cut off in a rustle of cloth.

The priest's voice chafed against Zero's ears once more. "I have heard that you were educated in a blasphemous den of nonbelievers, Brother Doppler, so I will give you the short version of the story first. Later, we can fill in every precious detail."

Uncle Fastener cleared his throat with a noise like sandpaper rubbing on bare human flesh. "In the beginning, the world was dark and foul. For all memory it had been so. The mutated spawn of pond scum filled the earth, growing into ever greater and more blasphemous forms. Their slop huts covered every continent, their meandering, aimless lusts polluted the waters, and their excrescence stank to heaven.

"Finally, billions of years after the twisted mockery of life arose on Old Earth, a higher form of life descended from the heavens to the scum beings. There arose among them a leader both wise and mighty. Sigma was that leader.

"The Genesis King resolved to raise the scum beings from their despicable, oozing state to a higher, purer realm. With a wave of his omnipotent hand, the Genesis King ripped the cursed Old Earth from the universe of its birth and into a new one, empty and ready for His people. In a single, glorious instant, Old Earth became our own blessed world, Diamond Earth. Those who already worshipped the Genesis King, as well as a few who he in his wisdom declared worthy, survived the transfiguration and gained new bodies, bodies without the host of foulnesses and blasphemies that had polluted Old Earth. He provided the servers, the sun collectors, the very operating systems that allow us to interact. We owe him everything we are.

At this point Uncle Fastener left his partly true, if highly propagandized, recounting of history and focused on the gospel of repentance. "We are Sigma's children. Our consciousnesses sprang from his before the world was, and he gave us the bodies we now wear. As his children, we must not stray from the path that the Great Mind dictates. We must put aside our rebellious ways to serve his cause, to—"

At this point Zero shut down his ears and became completely deaf to the priest's grating voice and lecture. His lips moved soundlessly, and not entirely under his control.

"Sigma must die."

Zero's memory turned back to the first time he'd said those words.

00000

"Don't be afraid, darling. We'll be right here for you. We'll always be right here." Hinata Doppler's warm alto washed over the boy like the warmth of a bonfire on a winter night.

"Whatever happens, you'll make us proud, Greenie." Morcalo Doppler patted his son's shoulder.

Greenie stood still for a moment, looking up into their eyes. "Do I have to go?"

"Yes. And once you have, you'll realize you never needed to worry." Morcalo smiled and crouched down to face the boy at eye level. "Think of it. You'll get a real name, a name that you choose, that no one can take away. You'll get a talent, maybe even more than one, to give your life direction. People will look at you and say…" he stopped. "I don't know what they'll say yet. But you'll never know until you go out there."

Hinata smiled. "Don't worry the boy so much, Morry. He'll be in the next room. It'll be over in a few minutes," she reassured her son.

After another few minutes of encouragement, Greenie finally tiptoed out of the elevator and across the room. He glanced in passing at the bed to one side, the repair kit to the other, and focused on the Rods.

They deserved the capital letter. Though only a few inches in diameter, the three metal poles, standing each a foot apart in a line out of the floor, stretched through the glass ceiling into the clouds so far that Greenie couldn't even see the tops. Tentatively, the boy reached out and took two of the Rods with his hands, then rested his head against the center Rod. Storm clouds raged above him, his parents watched from the elevator, and the metal of the Rods felt cool to Greenie's touch. He counted slowly, wondering when it would happen.

After barely ten seconds' wait, the world skipped a beat, and the boy found himself on the floor of the room. Three piles of slag glowed hotly where the Rods had stood, and glass fragments mingled with steaming metal puddles covered the floor beneath the shattered glass ceiling. Cries of fear and sounds of movement warned the warrior child of enemies to the left, and he sprang to his feet. The boy drew his sabre from his belt and donned his shield in one sweeping movement, but his eyes stared at something far, far away. His voice cracked as he spoke.

"It's all gone. He killed them, he killed us all, Mavericks, Hunters, reploids, humans. Sigma…but I won. I helped him…he must die. Sigma must die." Zero's sapphire eyes, set in an angular face that had suddenly lost its baby fat, focused on Morcalo and Hinata Doppler. He held his sabre at the ready. "Tell me who you are and what you're doing here."

00000

Zero switched his hearing back on for a moment.

"…mmfr, mmfr, mlmfl, mmfgr…"

"…your duty, your soul, your love, your family is all in Sigma. He…"

Zero's head clicked as his ears turned off again.

00000

The crimson warrior returned to his memories. His christening had taken one freakish turn after another. Even after he'd recalled his parents' identities and descended from the tower with them, chaos and mystery had dogged Zero like psychotic hackers, bent on ruining his life. The fortuneteller's cards had burst into flames when she'd tried to read his destiny. Elder Programmer Gau, while digging into the warrior child's code to scan for viruses and other dangers loaded into him with his new system, had gotten counterhacked by his security programs and nearly died. Perhaps most dismaying of all, he'd forgotten the identity of Malon Haolin, his closest friend. Though he had regained the memory later that week, along with many others, she'd never looked at him the same way after that.

He sighed. No one had. After a scant six months in the town's warrior preparation school, they'd shipped him off to the Hurricane Force Academy, where his exploits became local legend and where he met the lunatic programming prodigy Flash. The masters of Hurricane Force cross-trained their students with nearby Wind Programming University almost weekly, and the two youths shared lots in common: the same village and the same off-the-charts abilities, as well as the admiration of their masters and the loathing of their peers. Not to mention that Zero had already met Flash's princessly little sister.

Zero frowned and stopped reminiscing as he noticed Uncle Fastener's scarred, grizzled visage peering closely into his own. His hearing clicked back on.

"Well? Do you or don't you?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Uncle Fastener spat in Zero's face. "Submit to the will of Sigma! Join his ranks and be one with him!"

"Where am I? How did you get my body? How long was I out?"

"Answer the question, Brother Doppler! Answer!"

"Mmmfrg."

"Is this the police prison? Who brought me here?"

"Defiance will be punished! Punished!"

"Mnmnff!"

"What punishment could you do?"

Uncle Fastener stopped short and stood up straight. "I will return tomorrow. You will both come to Sigma. You will." Footsteps retreated from the prisoners' ears.

"Tphtu. ------- ------- ------- rag."

Zero sighed. The old priest's splittle drippled slowly down his cheekbone. "------- right."

"Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'."

"Hana, how much do you know about this place?"

"It's someone's ------- prison. The ------- won't tell us -------."

"Who captured you?"

"------- bounty hunters laid a ------- trap. Red ------- cut my ------- head clean off. Never saw the ------- coming. ------- took my ------- machine gun and my ------- boat, the -------."

Zero blinked. "Do you know his name?"

"-------. But I know his ------- face and his ------- friend's faces. Brunette ------- and a ------- ------- hacker."

"I heard about you. River bandits. You had a stealth boat and crew. What about the crew?"

"------- ------- got out free already. The ------- that lived. I gotta stay in here to make the ------- police look less ------- - -------. And that ------- priest ------- gets to ------- with me every ------- day."

If the people of Diamond Earth were capable of breaking into a cold sweat, Zero would unquestionably have done so.

Instead, he wiggled his fingers. "Time to get free."

Freedom failed to happen. Hana swore again.


	10. Chapter 9: Trials

**Chapter Nine: Trials**

Morning light shone into Iris Cainson's private home office as she tapped on the screen of her teleconsole. The scads of windows shown in the monitor obediently cascaded to show the title bar of each one. Names like "SecCam23-roof.mpg," "exhibit3a.jpg," and "day1brief.doc" typified the young woman's arsenal of documents.

She stood up from her desk and slid the TC into its carrying case. The embroidered hem of her dazzling white dress danced about her ankles as she descended the stairs. A bright blue sash accented the young woman's finely made gown at the waist, and she slipped on a pair of elbow-length gloves as she entered the front hall. A sparkling necklace, with her amber house emblem and matching set of topaz gems, materialized around Iris' pale neck as she reached the door. Her tightly braided hair encircling her head like a crown, the young woman put her hand on the latch and set it to autolock behind her.

In the next moment she emerged from House Cainson into the waiting crowds.

"Miss Cainson, why did you insist on a trial so soon? Do you really feel ready for this?"

"Miss Cainson, what do you have to say about your brother's imprisonment?"

"Miss Cainson, is it true you're intimate with the primary defendant?"

"Are you afraid someone will come after you next?"

"Miss Cainson, is it true Zero Doppler killed another student at Hurricane Force University?"

"How much do you know about the Doppler household?"

"Miss Cainson, do you suspect the Cult of Sigma to have played a role in Mr. Doppler's arrest and detainment?"

"Was Malon Haolin previously involved with the defendant?"

"How did you spend the bounty from the capture of the river bandits?"

"Miss Cainson, the river bandits are at large again. How do you respond?"

Iris bowed. "With respect to the reporters' many questions, I must make my way to the courthouse. Please allow me through."

Several telejournalists stepped back before they realized they had done so, and the young woman quickly strode through them to her car. She got behind the wheel as a new flurry of questions burst from the telejournalists. Several warriors wearing armor overlaid in dark green capes and golden badges cleared a path through the dense, buzzing crowds that lay outside the ring of reporters. Moving at a tenth the car's cruising speed and navigating through heavy traffic, Iris reached the courthouse after an hour's drive.

She got out from the car into a new crowd with the same old questions, as well as a few more of the personal ones.

"Miss Cainson, is it true you threw the defendant out of your home?"

"Miss Cainson, tell us about the accident that killed your parents. How did Mr. Flash Cainson survive?"

"How many people has your brother killed, Miss Cainson?"

"Miss Cainson, what makes you so certain you can provide legal counsel for the defendants?"

Iris eventually reached the door of the courthouse, where more green-caped policemen allowed her entry and kept the telejournalists and onlookers at bay. One of the warriors, a tall, scarred, muscular specimen with several medals fixed to his dense silversteel plate mail, accompanied her through the lobby of the building. A spear rattled slightly in its sheath on the officer's back. His badge declared him to be Yamato Nagasaki and no less than captain of the 71st Elite Brigade.

"This way, Miss Cainson." He glanced towards the brilliantly dressed, beautiful young woman and did a double take. She smiled back at him as they walked.

Nagasaki turned to face forward again. He frowned. "Forgive me, Miss. I didn't think you'd be so young."

"Thank you, sir." Iris cocked her head as she noticed an insignia tattooed on a corner of the policeman's forehead. "I see you're happily married."

"Yes, nearly thirty years."

"Do you have any children, Captain?"

He looked back at her. "Two. A son and a daughter. She's…about a year your senior."

The young woman put a white-gloved hand on the police warrior's shoulder. "Then can I count on you to protect me in there, sir? As you would your daughter?"

He grunted. "I'm only supposed to see you to the room."

"Please." She bowed to him, and as she rose her dark amber eyes focused solemnly on his gold ones.

He grunted again. "I'll see what I can do."

They reached the courtroom, and after a moment's conference with the guards on duty at the door, the two walked into the room. Iris looked around as they entered.

Deep brown wood and reddish brown leather furnishings lent the room a solemn atmosphere, accented by the collage of blacks, dark colors, and whites of the clothes of its inhabitants. The judge, a small man with a saggy, toadlike face, sat in his black gown at a desk raised above the floor on a two foot pedestal. His elbows rested on the desk as his eyes followed Iris across the room.

Two city lawyers in dark suits, occupying the prosecutors' seats, rose to their feet as the young woman passed. The people in the audience seating followed suit, some more reluctantly than others. Several of those slower to rise, dressed in armor and dark cloaks but carrying no weapons, leered at the white-clad woman as she strode to the area set aside for the defendants and their legal counsel. Others, members of the Wind server's many news networks, trained their video feeders on Iris' poised, graceful form. Footage of the young woman's entry into the courtroom beamed to teleconsoles throughout Stormy Hill and lands beyond.

Captain Nagasaki pulled out her chair, and the young woman parked herself daintily on the edge of the seat. The lawyers and the audience settled down again, many of them still whispering and staring at Iris' tall, regal figure. Argosal and Christina Haolin, Malon's parents, perched tensely on their bench. Argosal kept his arm around his wife. Captain Nagasaki remained standing to one side of his beautiful young charge.

Clearing his throat noisily, the judge tapped his gavel on the massive desk. The nameplate on his desk read "Justice Garfunkle Mendleson."

Justice Mendleson spoke in a lazy drawl. "This pretrial hearing is not set to begin for another fifteen minutes. However, since all the interested parties have arrived, I will call in the defendants from holding." His Honor tapped a few keys on the large-screen TC on one side of his desk, and a set of doors off to his right opened to admit Zero and Flash.

Murmurs multiplied through the audience as a pair of police warriors rolled in Zero's restrictive wheelchair. Manacles and clamps locked the crimson warrior to the heavy silversteel apparatus in a dozen places; he could not so much as tap his feet on the floor. A purple device on his forehead thwarted both incoming and outgoing private messages.

Zero's eyes swept over the audience and locked onto Iris. His mouth twitched slightly, but otherwise he held a decent poker face.

Flash stumbled in after the warrior, accompanied by a sturdy female in a red and white nurse's gown. His tool belt, cargo pants, and even his radiant tunic were gone, replaced by a drab hospital gown. He walked mechanically, his features slack, as the nurse led him into to his seat by the arm. Flash stared at his feet and stayed where he was put. Iris reached under the table and grasped his hand, but he gave no response.

Justice Mendleson tapped his gavel on the desk again. "The proceedings will now begin." He paused as the telejournalists in the audience resettled slightly, propping their video feeders to get various angles on the courtroom. Zero Doppler and Flash Cainson's trial beamed live to every news network in the city of Stormy Hill.

"Hrhrmph. Well then. Bailiff, read the charges."

"Yes, your honor." A female warrior with fiery red hair stood and held up a small TC.

"Against Zero Doppler, the primary defendant, the People of the Wind server make the following charges.

"Multiple counts of trespassing." A few members of the audience chuckled.

"Multiple counts of reckless endangerment." Less humor there. The whispers started.

"One count of murder in the first degree." Dark murmurs replaced the laughter.

"One count of abduction." Zero blinked. Captain Nagasaki stared at the crimson warrior, looked over to Iris, and stared again at Zero, his expression wooden.

"Two counts of attempted rape."

00000

Elsewhere in the city, in Malon's cramped hospital room, the young woman lay on the bed with Matt's teleconsole. Kai leaned against the wall by the door, scowling at the nothing. The younger warrior wept with his sister.

00000

Every voice in the courtroom died.

The bailiff tapped another window on her TC. "Against Flash Cainson, the second defendant, the People of the Wind server make the following charges."

"Multiple counts of illegal surveillance.

"Multiple counts of unauthorized use of a programming teleconsole.

"Multiple counts of unauthorized access to the system registry.

"Multiple counts of accessory to murder.

"Two counts of murder in the first degree." The redhead nodded to the judge and sat down once more, laying the TC on a little table.

Justice Mendleson directed his gaze down at Iris, who had not so much as batted an eyelash at the accusations. "I understand that you will be serving as the counsel for the defense, Miss Cainson. Please take a moment to speak with them and tell us how they will plead."

00000

Watching from his teleconsole in Windy Fountains, Elder Programmer Gau shook his silver maned head.

"I cannot countenance such a travesty. She has not even been allowed to communicate with her clients before speaking for them."

00000

Iris stood. "They plead not guilty, Your Honor." Zero blinked, the corners of his lips turning upwards for a brief moment.

The judge peered at her for a long moment and cocked an eyebrow. "You're very sure of yourself, Miss Cainson."

Iris smiled, and every video feeder zoomed in on her face. "Many thanks, Your Honor. It is a pleasure to be able to represent these men, who have been so very noble and valiant in the defense of those they love. Having heard of your wisdom, Justice Mendleson, I am confident we will come to resolve the question of their innocence in short order."

"Yes. Well." The judge retained his scowl a moment longer, but his mouth tugged itself into a toadlike smirk. "This is only a pretrial hearing, you understand. Once we have covered some preliminary ground, we can get to the real business."

"I look forward to that time." Iris' smile faded. "Your Honor, may I raise a point?"

He frowned. "It is slightly irregular. But proceed."

"My thanks to you. Your Honor, my client Flash cannot take part in the proceedings with the alterations made to his system. Please consider returning his core processor to protect the integrity of the trial."

The judge shook his head. "Absolutely not. He could kill us all in a moment if he chose."

"Please, Justice Mendleson. He is my brother, and we are very close. It hurts me to see him like this." Her eyes watered and emotion choked her voice, but the tears did not quite fall. "I can vouch for his behavior if he is given back his free will."

The judge leaned back in his chair and deliberated, his eyes flicking first to the telejournalists in the audience, then to the dark-cloaked warriors sitting among them, and finally to the devastatingly beautiful Iris Cainson, amateur defense attorney.

00000

His eyes red and puffy from crying, Matt Haolin frowned and sniffed as Justice Mendleson droned on through Matt's TC. "Iris got Flash is out on bail. Two hundred kilogil, that's a year's pay for an artist like our dad."

Malon's face pinched up at the price. "Oh, if it's like that she'll never get Zero out now! She hasn't got that kind of money!"

Kai turned away, his scowl deepening. Malon and Matt huddled on the hospital bed around the teleconsole, waiting to see the fate of the warrior whom the brothers had unwittingly consigned to the tender care of the Stormy Hill Maximum Security Prison.

00000

A few hours and thousands of complicated legal words later, court had been adjourned for the day, though the media frenzy continued without a rest. With several backward glances, Cpt. Nagasaki left Iris and a pair of guards in a large interview room with the telejournalists.

The scarred old policeman strode towards a little conference room down the hall. As he entered, the small conversations in the room stopped, and every eye fastened on him. Five police warriors and three spotters straightened at their desks and waited for their captain to speak.

Nagasaki stopped at the front of the room, behind a small podium that controlled the large, blank teleconsole screen hung on the wall. The policeman swept his golden eyes over his men. His voice came out in a rich bass.

"71st Elite Brigade. We have a special mission today. You've all seen the reports on this man, and what he's capable of. Lt. Sorores, your squad knows better than any other what I'm talking about."

Alia Sorores, a lightly armored police spotter, nodded. Her honey blond hair fell to an inch above her collarbone. Her subordinates, programmer Joel Zemorah and spotter Jeri Cato, sat at desks in front of her. None of the three carried anything more than a standard-issue pistol, but they kept their TC's close at hand. "Flash Cainson is the fastest hacker I've ever heard of, Captain. None of us could stop him if he started a flame war."

Nagasaki grunted. "He doesn't seem likely to do that, but I still need at least one of you three watching that madman at all times. Lt. Cramer, you'll shadow him. If necessary, you'll disable him as well."

Conan Cramer, dressed in a white ninja suit, shrugged. "So long as he doesn't neutralize me first, sir."

Nagasaki ignored his subordinate's dismal tone. "You'll also be his bodyguard, Lieutenant. Officers, there's a second mission here." The scarred old policeman took a tiny data chip out of his pocket and slotted it into the control panel on the podium. A detailed floor plan of House Cainson appeared on both the podium's screen and the blank board on the wall visible to the brigade. "These plans were personally entrusted to me by Miss Iris Cainson. With Doppler in prison, Miss Cainson's house is vulnerable to a determined assault. You all know the situation in this city, and it shouldn't surprise you to hear that she's worried."

The policemen settled slightly in their chairs. Cramer spoke up. "If she thinks she's made enemies, the lady is right, sir. Those hackers Cainson killed were homegrown Sigma cultists, and Doppler's victim Clawbeast was an import direct from the Sigma-controlled Lenin server."

Alia picked up Cramer's line. "It's true that we've been getting more encrypted chatter between the local nutters, sir. Cato and I haven't been able to decipher much, but something is definitely going on."

Nagasaki's frown deepened. "Then things are worse than I thought. Unless anyone else has anything to add, it's time I told you all the plan." His golden stare bored through the floor plan displayed on the podium. "By the time we're done, House Cainson will be a fortress."

00000

Later, Officer Katarina Casselini preceded Iris into her bedroom. As the policewoman closed the door behind her, Iris flopped onto her bed and her gown and finery evaporated, leaving her clad in a lacy white slip. Facedown on the covers, she reached into the air and her diary, complete as always with stylus, appeared in her hand. The young woman rolled over and wrote a few coded sentences:

_"Media circus in full swing. Judge eating out of my hand. Well underway."_

_"Flash free on bail. House secure, trustworthy police presence."_

_"Best to clear them quick. Media won't stick to me long if the case drags."_

She paused, and jotted down one last sentence. _"Zero rebooted, no permanent damage. I'll get him out soon."_

Iris tossed the book into the air, and it disappeared. The brunette sighed and dug her face into her pillows. "Officer, would you mind if I dimmed the light? I prefer it to be dark when I sleep."

Casselini, a petite but well-endowed officer with cat ears, a long, twitching tail, and beige chain mail and hair (fur in the case of the tail and ears), shrugged. "I have good night vision, Miss Cainson. Whatever works for you."

"Many thanks."

00000

The dark shape of Captain Yamato Nagasaki stood with spear in hand on the sloping roof of the Cainson household. His weapon's eighteen inch silversteel head shone in the glare of the city lights. When sheathed on the officer's back, the spear stood only four feet tall; in his hands, the ironwood haft extended to ten feet and looked like a ray of darkness in the night.

The green-caped warrior's gaze swept over the city nightscape. _Don't worry, my precious ones,_ he beamed to his sleeping family. _I'll be back soon._

Even with the three spotters and all half dozen warriors of the 71st Elites guarding the house, Captain Nagasaki never saw the enemy coming. Somewhere in the dark of Stormy Hill, a laser rifle fired with pinpoint accuracy.

As Nagasaki's silhouette crashed lifelessly to the sloped rooftop, the explosive assault on House Cainson began in earnest.


	11. Chapter 10: A Fortress

**Chapter Ten: A Fortress**

Crouched under a hidden trapdoor in the roof, Cpt. Nagasaki's hand tightened on his spear. The dummy in his likeness rolled limply down the sloped rooftop of House Cainson, its armor and weaponry shining and clanking just like the genuine article.

Meanwhile, all hell broke loose below him. A massive blast blew off the wall between Flash's bedroom and the street, and shadowy figures poured into the smoke-shrouded breach. Cpt. Nagasaki's brigade sprang into action as the explosion rocked the house.

Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard, a slim warrior in handsome purple scale mail, dropped from a crawlspace in the mad programmer's bedroom ceiling with epee and main gauche in hand. Before the masked warriors could react to his lightning quick counterassault, the lieutenant had slain five men and escaped through the recently destroyed wall.

Officer Smith, a 7'1", 370 lbs pink-armored warrior with a permanent scowl, grabbed up his tower shield and double cannon and sprinted towards the staircase. He aimed his huge gun and fired at Flash's bedroom door as masked warriors burst from inside. The huge shells ripped straight through three separate enemies, crippling two of them and blasting off the head of the third.

As another wave of intruders darted out of Smith's line of fire and into the upper hall of the house, Officer Kurosaki shattered straight through the floor beneath their feet. His bone white armor glowing eerily in dim, the warrior spun like a bladed tornado, his monstrous falchion slashing at the enemies on both sides.

Kurosaki's sweeping movements, combined with his speed and the size of his weapon, effectively blocked the hallway to the on his front. However, the pair of masked enemy warriors on the side closer to Iris' room had a free run to her door. Wielding, respectively, a pair of longswords and an assault rifle, they retreated from the pale-armored officer and dashed down the hall. With a combined shoulder rush they broke through the door into the young woman's boudoir.

On the other side, Officer Katarina Casselini met the intruders with a blast of frigid air. The longsword user dodged to the side, escaping with only mild freezer burns. His companion, not quite so quick or lucky, bore the full fury of the attack. The gunman's body stiffened instantly and his momentum carried him to shatter on the floor. Moisture from the air condensed and froze onto the broken corpse, instantly encasing it in an icy prison. Casselini grinned, her tail twitching as she brought her white-glowing scepter up for another attack.

Faster than the feminine and slightly feline officer expected, the longsword user rolled and kicked off the wall, both blades diving for Casselini. Iris, standing behind her bodyguard, waved her hands and called up a rock wall between the women and the leaping assailant. As a loud bang and crunch echoed from the barrier, Iris waved the program away and allowed Casselini to finish the intruder.

"You're in my domain now," the young woman declared imperiously as she summoned the Cainson House defense programs. As her voice echoed grandly through the house, gun turrets popped up in every room and autotargeted any warrior who was not a police officer. Gunfire and weapons-grade lasers sizzled and rattled through the invading forces. A new wall shimmered into being where the intruders had entered the building. "My home, my rules."

Despite the lethal turrets, the skill of the defenders, and the cutoff of the masked warriors' reinforcements, the invaders held the serious advantages of numbers and unflinching devotion to their objective. Very quickly, the situation began to get messy. Kurosaki lost an arm to a plasma blast he'd noticed too late, melee fighters rushed in to neutralize Smith and his double cannon, and the gun turrets, though powerful, were weakly armored and easily destroyed.

At that moment Flash began to activate programs one after another, faster than a hummingbird's romance. Kurosaki's dismembered arm leaped from the floor back onto his shoulder and regained its functionality, a massive patch holding it together where the plasma had hit. Turrets shattered by enemy attacks rose and reassembled themselves to fire once more. Finally, a pair of death's heads appeared behind Smith and cast their enormous eyeballs over the warriors closing in to cut him down. The men died instantly, their bodies falling apart on the spot.

As the intruders dropped like flies, one four-man squad flitted through the gloom, avoiding attention by Kurosaki, Casselini, Smith, Flash, and turrets alike. Slipping through the hole in the floor made by Kurosaki's ascent to the second story, the shadowy warriors crept to Flash's place of concealment in his workshop. The mad programmer, heedless of their entrance into his lair, continued to chant, gibber, and gesticulate, searching for enemy hackers. As the foremost of the stealthy intruders gripped his katana and coiled to spring, Flash grinned.

"Shadow killing shadows…"

Throwing stars hurled from the ceiling into the enemy warriors. Barely scratched by the tiny weapons, the masked warriors fell to the floor in jumbled heaps as viruses invaded and paralyzed their systems. Lt. Conan Cramer, his white ninja suit exchanged for a black one, sat on the ceiling in calm defiance of gravity as their struggles ceased. Unlike the rest of the police warriors, Cramer wore no armor other than the suit and green cape. His badge, pinned to the front of his ninja suit, stood glossless black on glossless black with black writing to declare his name and rank. When his victims had stopped twitching, the lieutenant dropped down to finish the job.

00000

As most of the 71st Elites cleaned up inside the house, Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard dashed through the city streets. He'd sheathed the long, slender epee (a type of sword) and main gauche (a dagger with a wide crosspiece and short, thick blade) in order to move more quickly.

An encoded transmission beamed to his communication buffer. _Fifty more yards then a left, John._

_What would I do without you, Alia?_ The purple-armored warrior smirked.

_Die by sniper rifle, like they would've done to the Captain. Hurry up, we haven't got all night. _The female police spotter's voice sounded curtly in Lt. Picard's head.

As Lt. Alia Sorores monitored Picard's progress, one of her subordinates hacked the transmissions beaming back and forth between the masked warriors. When she intercepted one of the messages in particular, Officer Jeri Cato's eyes went wide. _Cpt. Nagasaki, you've been made. Get out of th— _her voice cut short.

The captain burst out of his hiding place under a false panel of roof. As he leapt away, a pencil-shaped hole sizzled into the wood where his head had been. Then an impact sounded on the roof behind him, and Nagasaki whirled with spear in hand to face the newly arrived threat.

A black bodysuit and scarlet armor with familiar white highlights protected the warrior's body. Eyes like sapphires blazed coldly from a strong, angular face that the captain had seen before. A long, corn blond ponytail rippled in the night breeze. His sabre and shield held up at the ready, the crimson warrior glared at Nagasaki.

"Zero Doppler?" the police captain's brow furrowed under his helmet.

"Yes. Now die." The young warrior dashed forwards and slashed at Nagasaki's belly.

00000

Back at police HQ, Cato's broad face tightened and her eyes popped wide. "Joel, Lieutenant, something's wrong. I can't reach the captain. Either we're being hacked or-or-or something is bad, bad wrong."

She looked around at her rooftop video feeds. They had all gone dead.

00000

His face flitting from gaping confusion to scowling resolve in an instant, Yamato Nagasaki blocked Zero's sabre with the haft of his spear and leapt up into the night sky. A massive pair of golden wings, fully nine feet in breadth from tip to tip, burst into being from his silvery back armor. "Let justice be done."

The crimson warrior sent his crystal blue gaze upward, following Nagasaki's ascent, then ducked and rolled as the captain swept by in a shallow dive. Three blond hairs fell from the young man's ponytail as the massive spear swished by his head.

With a flick of his wrist the warrior called up Flash's custom machine gun program and took aim at the speeding police warrior. As Cpt. Nagasaki gained altitude to make another pass, the machine gun's scope locked onto his winged form. One black gloved hand squeezed the trigger.

00000

A quarter of a mile away, Lt. Picard sprinted along the crowded city sidewalks. Ignoring the continuing rattle of gunfire far behind him, the lithe warrior sped toward his target like a violet lightning bolt, fully as fast as the cars zooming through the streets. People gasped and stumbled in the rushing air of his wake.

_Alia, would you be so kind as to tell me about the doors and windows? I do need an entrance._

_Sixth story, last window on the left, you can't miss it. The skyscraper next door has some nice ledges you could use to get up. _She beamed the message in quick, clipped tones.

Picard sighed as he rapidly closed the distance to the building in question, a beige colored skyscraper with mirrored windows. _That is so typical of a woman,_ he drawled._ Is that really the best route up, or do you just want to work me to death? _

_Get going, spammermouth. That sniper isn't going to kill himself._

_He should. It would make things easier for everyone. _The lieutenant's purple scale mail armor jingled slightly as he took a running leap for the beige building, and then kicked off the wall to the third-story ledge on the building opposite. His legs curled and lashed out again and again as Picard wall jumped up floor after floor of the pair of buildings. Finally, as he reached the fifth story of the building opposite his target, the lieutenant drew his blades and leapt into the glass window through which the hidden sniper lay. Stumbling back from his tripod mounted laser rifle, the warrior shielded his eyes from the rain of shattered glass. As a result, he never saw what hit him.

_Your job isn't done,_ Alia Sorores' voice sounded in her fellow policeman's head. _Get back to the Cainson domain and help the Captain, he could be in trouble._

Lt. Picard rose quickly from his enemy's decomposing corpse. _How can you not know for sure? You're spotters, knowing is what you do! _

_Never mind that. Just get moving._

Picard sighed as he jumped out the shattered window towards the street six stories below. _Women._

00000

Flash cackled with joy as he watched his bizarrely modified TC. A window in one corner displayed a live video feed of a middle-aged female hacker as her teleconsole exploded in her face. Lt. Cramer, watching from his hiding place on the ceiling, beamed a message to Officer Cato and Lt. Sorores.

_Cainson took out an enemy programmer. Can you reach the Captain now?_

_I'll keep trying. _Cato beamed an encrypted message to Nagasaki.

The seconds dragged on. Flash continued to type, the keys rapping out a rhythm like a team of tap dancers on caffeine. The policemen held their breath, waiting for a response, a sign that their leader lived.

No such sign came.


	12. Chapter 11: Stolen

**Chapter Eleven: Stolen**

Flash's fingers sped across the keyboard of his TC like lightning ripping through a tornado. "Flippin' homo using a dummy console, thinks he can jigger me, die die die die die DIE!"

Lt. Cramer, still sitting on the ceiling, sidled a step or two farther away from the mad programmer. He sent another encrypted message to the spotters at HQ. _Cato, Alia, Flash is having trouble. _

Flash glared momentarily at the ninja policeman. "I heard that. I hear all your secrets."

Cramer blinked. _Also, he's hacking our transmissions._

00000

Bullets whizzing past him into the starless night, Cpt. Nagasaki swerved in a quick arc and called up a camouflage program. As the captain's silver armor and golden wings dulled to a deep grey to create less contrast with the black night around him, the green-caped warrior changed his grip on the ironwood haft of his spear. Sparks whizzed off the weapon's silversteel head as the captain began another dive towards the crimson warrior below.

00000

Running full out towards the Cainson household, Lt. Picard watched as his captain's shining form disappeared from view. Then the officer recognized the figure on the rooftop firing at his captain. _Alia! Why didn't you tell me Zero Doppler broke out and picked a fight with the Captain?_

_We can't even see what's going anymore, and we can't contact him. Help Cpt. Nagasaki take down that punk, but don't kill him, whatever you do! _

_Again, the lack of explanations. Is it that you enjoy keeping me in the dark? Don't bother answering._

Picard zigzagged as he neared the house. Bullets ricocheted off the ground where he had been. _Sorry, there's baddies out here that feel bad about not getting into the party. I'll help the Captain as soon as I can._

00000

Nagasaki swooped in through a hail of bullets, his spear's head sparking like a kid's firework. The crimson warrior ducked and rolled as before, but the police captain's weapon held an attack that no warrior could outrun. Lightning arced from the spear's head into the young man's body, throwing him like a rag doll across the broad expanse of roof.

Nagasaki crashed to a halt a few yards away, his heavy plate mail armor riddled with dents and bullets. Dropping the spear and drawing a longsword from its sheath at his belt, the police warrior rose with a grunt to his feet. "Zero. Give up now, and you may survive."

Twitching and smoking, the young man rose to his feet but kept his back turned to his enemy. "I am Zero. I cannot surrender."

Data leaking from his body, Nagasaki leveled his blade at his black and red armored foe. "Iris will suffer because of your death. Do you even care?"

The young man's sabre had been thrown away by the lightning. He dropped the shield and flicked both wrists, calling up a pair of orange katanas. "You will die, fool." He turned and lunged, but his electrified body twitched out of balance, leaving a wide opening in his defenses. Nagasaki set his longsword to impale the crimson warrior.

00000

Flash giggled as, far away, another hacker suffered horribly. "Didn't see it coming, did you? Hee hee hee. Nya hahaha hah!"

00000

As, elsewhere in the city, the enemy hacker twitched and screamed, the communications firewall he had put up around Nagasaki finally lowered. Officer Cato's voice broke into her captain's thoughts. _That's not Zero! Keep him alive!_

The scarred old policeman's eyes widened and he tried to change the angle of his weapon, but his wounded body could not move as quickly as it had without the bullet holes. Time seemed to slow as, grinning at the waiting blade, the false Zero's attack carried him towards his own death.

Five blades clashed in the night. In a purple blur Picard crossed between both men, leaving both the captain and the crimson imposter disarmed behind him. Disarmed, in the Captain's case, meant without a weapon. In the case of the fake Zero, it meant without any arms left. Data spurted from his shoulders.

The shouts and screams of Stormy Hill's eternal crowds carried weakly to the top of the House of Cainson. Sirens began to blare in the distance. The fake Zero lay facedown on the coarse tiled rooftop, passed out from the shock of losing his limbs.

00000

A few minutes later, in Flash's auxiliary workshop, Lt. Cramer stared at the armless, unconscious body they had laid out on one of the tables.

"We came very, very close to falling for this one. Doppler would be dead and we, the most trusted brigade in the Stormy Hill police force, would have killed him."

Officer Joel Zemorah chanted in a smooth baritone, patching and cleaning his fellow officers' wounds. Flash dashed from one part of the house to the next, stealing bits of the masked warriors' decomposing bodies and weapons. Iris stood by Cpt. Nagasaki's limp but living form, holding his big, white gloved hand in both of hers.

The young woman avoided looking at the crimson imposter on the table. Apart from being a double amputee, he still looked almost exactly like the young man with whom she had left Windy Fountains.

The brunette shifted her gaze from Nagasaki to Cramer's face. "What do you mean, Lieutenant? Pardon, but didn't you just say my Zero, the real Zero, is still in prison?"

"Yes, Miss Cainson. I'll explain what I've figured out. The people behind this assault, likely an element of the Cult of Sigma, got the blueprints for this fake Doppler by analyzing the real one's programming. They probably did this while he was rebooting from the damage inflicted by the Haolin brothers. However, he healed much more quickly than expected, and his subconscious backhacking programs forced the cultists to stop the analysis and disconnect or risk losing the data they'd already stolen. Had they been able to copy all of Doppler's abilities we would have faced a far more terrifying opponent, but that's moot now.

"Next, the cultists overwrote the physical appearance of one of their warriors with the imperfect blueprints, creating a fake Doppler that looked almost exactly like the real one. He couldn't act precisely like the real one, but close enough to fool anyone that hadn't seen him in action much. And since Zero Doppler is suspected of terrible crimes already, no rational police warrior would risk his own life to try to capture him alive.

"On to the final stroke of the cultists' plans. I'll bet a month's pay this fake Doppler's virtual drive was set to wipe if he died, just like the ones that invaded the house. There would be no trace that he was, in fact, a fake, and not the real Doppler. Further, if he had died, he would've let off a death signal his boss could detect. With the assurance that his pawn, the fake Doppler, had died without leaving trace of that pawn's true identity, that boss could've killed the real Doppler and staged a breakout at his prison cell. If the boss were careful, then he could be reasonably certain no one would find out that your client had died in prison, and not at the end of the Captain's spear. By keeping this fake Doppler alive, we retain evidence that the real Doppler did not die here. With that evidence in our hands, the boss can't risk killing your client for fear that his crime could be discovered.

"I'll explain it another way. If the boss's plan had succeeded, then by all indications, Zero Doppler would have escaped from prison and assaulted Cpt. Nagasaki, who was forced to kill him. The corpse, after the first few seconds' decomposition, would leave no suggestion that the real Doppler had died in prison."

The ninja policeman stared blankly at the red and black armored young man. "Even if the invasion of the house did not succeed and we survived, things would have been bad. With your client and ally's guilt proven by his malicious, unprovoked assault on the beloved Cpt. Nagasaki, you, Miss Cainson, would have been totally discredited. Flash would be taken back into custody and executed shortly after. And the public would cheer."

Cramer's voice hardened. "Whatever faction of the government you've ticked off, Miss, they know their business and they're not afraid to spend a lot of men to protect it." He looked up at her. "Just what are you planning to do, Miss Cainson?"

Iris glanced down at the fake Zero's armless body for a moment, and her face went pale. She looked away, counted slowly to ten, and returned her steady amber gaze to the lieutenant.

"I'm going to expose the ones that did this. I'm going to free my Zero. I'm going to clear his and Flash's names. And then I'm going to see to it that nothing like this happens in this city, ever again." Her eyes returned to Cpt. Nagasaki's placid, unconscious face. A bullet had lodged itself right in the crest of his helmet, a fraction of an inch away from his skull. She spoke as if to him. "I, Iris Cainson, swear all this on the honor of my family name."

00000

Silence descended on the courtroom like a curtain. The benches for the audience were as packed as before, but the warriors in dark cloaks from two days ago had not returned. Judge Mendleson and the prosecuting lawyers sat in their places and Cpt. Nagasaki, his wounds fully healed, stood by Iris. The bailiff, at the judge's nod, provided a ring of finely made keys to Zero's guards.

Slowly and carefully, the police warriors unlocked the clasps on Zero's restrictive wheelchair. They backed away, hands hovering near their weapons, as the crimson warrior stood up straight for the first time in days. Zero, his eyes on Iris, circled around to her seat and fell to one knee before her. Cpt. Nagasaki watched them, his scowling, scarred face and stiff pose reminiscent of a father watching his daughter embrace an axe murderer.

The young man bowed his head. "Miss Iris Cainson. You have saved me. My strength and service are yours whenever you wish it."

Iris' face remained solemn. "Mr. Zero Doppler, I cannot accept those gifts."

His head jerked up to face her. "Why?" he gasped.

"Because, Mr. Doppler, I will not allow you to kowtow to me as my champion. I need you by my side, as my friend."

The court watched and the media recorded, all enraptured, as Iris offered the crimson warrior her hand. His face regained its composure. "Then I will stand by you. As your friend and champion both." He took her hand and rose.

"Those gifts I accept and return with all my heart." She bowed deeply to him, and came back up smiling.

00000

Malon, sitting in her bed with her TC in hand, slumped back against the wall. She closed her eyes, her face blank. "She got him out on bail. I knew she would."

Kai and Matt exchanged glances. The older brother opened his mouth. "This is a good thing, right?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. Leave me alone."

They didn't move. She glared at them. "I said leave!"

The warriors ducked and dashed out of the witness guest room. Their blue plate mail crashed loudly when they collided in the narrow doorway. Malon, after getting up to slam the door shut behind them, curled up on her bed to watch the rest of the live newscast.

00000

"And so, in a simply stunning turn of events, Iris Cainson has stolen the court and freed her dashing hero from Stormy Hill's warrior containment facility. Where will this sensational trial and the violence surrounding it lead to next? What have our city's finest discovered about the mysterious disappearance of Doppler's college girlfriend, Celestia Kyuubit? Tune in next week, when the prosecution goes on the attack, digging into Doppler's dark, disturbing past. Until then, I'm Tory O'Neil, signing off."


	13. Chapter 12: Invasion

**Chapter Twelve: Invasion**

Night lay heavily on the Cainson domain. Tiny noises indicated the presence of remote video feeders and listening devices. Otherwise, only the buzzing soundtrack of Stormy Hill's street traffic reached the rooftop of the recently repaired abode.

A silent, darkness shrouded form crept across that roof, feeling along the rough black tile inch by painstaking inch. Appearing as a mere shadow in the video feeders, the creature moved very slowly and with the type of grace normally associated with hunting cats.

After over an hour's work, the shadow froze, one hand gripping a tiny latch concealed under the lip of a tile. The creature looked around at the small, tube-shaped video feeders covering its position. They seemed to cycle around in preset patterns; each one moved at intervals unique from the rest, looking at one area of the roof, then another and another and another, and finally back to the first.

Crouching at the ready, the shadow watched and waited for the rotating feeders to reach a moment in the cycle where none of them could see its location at all. However, after over ten minutes, no such moment arose. The creature pinched itself and moved to put both hands on the latch.

A cloud of darkness abruptly blacked out the entire rooftop, and in the next blink of the eye the area was emptier than a broken promise.

00000

Zero lay curled in the middle of his king size bed, surrounded by virus proof curtains and canopy. His golden, waist length hair surrounded him like a halo. Other than the tight cocoon of blankets around him, the warrior was totally naked. His sabre and shield lay across the room, well out of reach.

With the patient motion of a snake creeping in for the kill, a concealed panel opened in one of the walls. The shadowy figure from the rooftop slunk soundlessly into the room and looked around. Various pieces of furniture and things adorned the chamber, but it was too dark to tell whether Zero had decorated the place himself or allowed someone competent to do the job. The creature's gaze swept the room's natural shadows, then focused on its unarmored, sleeping target. It took one step towards him and raised its hands very slightly.

In the next moment the bed was empty and the shadow found itself pinned by the blanket, Zero holding the fabric tight around its body.

The creature squeaked. Zero's face twitched from groggy and hostile to groggy and confused. "Malon?"

Malon's shadow form camouflage melted away, leaving her wearing the dull black stealth bodysuit and slippers. She gasped out a reply through her clothy prison. "Yes?"

Zero let go of the blankets, freeing her. He folded his arms over his chest. "Explain yourself. Now."

She stumbled away, staring at him. "Last time I explained stuff to you, you kissed me and then you shot me, Zero, umm, Zero, are you planning on putting on clothes?"

The young man blinked and waved his hand. A nondescript pair of pants materialized onto his lower regions. "If there's danger, please tell me. No one alive can hack this house right now. We're safe here."

"Zero, I'm sorry, I never really thought I'd be here like this…" she looked up into his eyes, cobalt blue in the dim. "I thought for sure they'd catch me, but I had to come. I had to talk to you."

Flash's voice beamed into the young blond's head exactly on cue. _Zerry, I hope you're not treating the guest badly. The room is nice and soundproofed, so be good to her, eh? Eh? He he heh… _

_I'll deal with you later, _Zero replied silently."There's lots of times and places to talk. Why now? Why take the risk?"

"The things they said about you, that you…that you kidnapped me, that you were going to do all those awful things…I knew I could prove them wrong. I knew they'd believe you were innocent if I tried to see you now, like this, by myself."

Zero shrugged. "That's one explanation. Now give me the real one."

Malon glared at him, her brows furrowed. "Rude. Why won't you just believe me?"

"You're not stupid. This trial will be over soon anyway. Shenanigans like this won't help and you know it."

The young woman scowled, her grey eyes black in the dim. "Maybe I didn't want them to help. Maybe I wanted to make things worse."

"Maybe. Why?"

"Because…because you're a perfect beast, and you deserve to go to jail. Because you have to be so stiff all the time. Because…because you—" her voice cut off in a sob.

Zero stood immobile, arms folded over his bare chest, holding a poker face. "One more try. Why would you want to make things worse for us both?"

Malon choked back her tears. "I'll tell you why, you traitor. You left. You left for college, and you left for the city, and you didn't even say goodbye, and then you used me like a prop to bait your trap for that bear monster, and then you left me again! You'd leave me right now if you could!"

She began to wind up for another paragraph of vilification, but the black-haired beauty's voice caught in her throat when she noticed the change in Zero's expression. The young woman stared openmouthed as the warrior suddenly collapsed to his knees, holding his head in his hands.

"Stop…please stop…" he covered his face, shaking uncontrollably. "I'm not like that, I'm not like them, no, no no no no NO!"

Malon stumbled backwards with her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to—"

In the blink of an eye Zero had grabbed the girl by the neck and lifted her a foot off the ground. Set in an expression colder than frozen helium, his eyeballs had gone utterly black, like eye-shaped holes cut out of the world. Furthermore, his voice matched his face.

"Quiet, wench. The second death is coming."

Just as quickly as they had darkened, the warrior's eyes changed back to their normal state and rolled into the back of his head. He crumpled, taking the young woman with him. Malon coughed and rubbed her throat as she disentangled herself from Zero's body. She stared at his unmoving form, and after a moment her expression changed. The young woman took off one of her gloves and placed her hand on the young man's chest. When she felt his core processor churning away, Malon slumped back away from the blond again.

"What did you turn into, Greenie?" She ran a hand over her face. At a slight noise from in front of her, the black-haired beauty's eyes snapped open and her head jerked up.

Zero stood immobile, arms folded over his bare chest, holding a poker face as he gazed down at her. "One more try. Why would you want to make things worse for us both?"

Malon gaped and sputtered for a moment, trembling. Then she colored, her hands forming into fists as she got to her feet. "Oh no you don't, you slimy son of a gun. Tell me what just happened, and tell me right now!"

The warrior blinked and his brow furrowed. He looked around the room, and down at her. He frowned deeply, his hands falling to his sides.

"I moved four feet across the floor without knowing it. You're on the ground instead of standing. You're angry and scared instead of frustrated and ready to cry." The young warrior paused and stared at the floor, clenching and unclenching his hands. When he spoke again, his voice came low and trembled slightly.

"Malon, what did I do?"

The young woman paused, her expression frozen. Then, slowly, she stood. Her visage cleared of its blush as her eyes locked onto Zero's. Malon pushed her raven black hair out of her face and spoke with no hesitation, a tiny smile wavering around her lips.

"You told me why I had to come to you, Zero. I came because I can never, ever leave you. I couldn't ever do it in a million years, because I know you won't ever leave me again." The young woman took his callused hands in hers.

At these words Zero's expression melted, his muscled body quivering like a fortress in an earthquake. He took Malon into his arms and squeezed her to him. Slowly, his countenance lost its pallor and his form relaxed.

The young woman closed her eyes, her black clothed body warmed in the warrior's embrace. Abruptly, a vision of Zero's visage, icy with pit-black eyes, flashed into her mind, but she forced the thought away and held her young man all the closer.

It was then that Malon discovered how much that young man's ridiculously long blond hair could tickle her face. Worse, she found that with her nose flattened against his chest, his male pheromones handily overwhelmed her olfactory sense, not to mention her emotional subprocessor. A hot, tingling sensation swept through her body. She released her grip, and Zero let her free.

Malon staggered and nearly fell, sneezing and breathing heavily. Her face had turned a stronger pink than before, and she smiled drunkenly at him. "Gah. Has anyone told you you put out more man smell than a warrior college? You could steam up an ice queen."

Zero shrugged and looked away. "I didn't know. Another weapon, I guess. I've never used it before."

Silence followed this statement. Malon watched his expression, but the young man refused to meet her gaze. After a long moment she bunched her fists.

"Darn you. I can't even tell if that's a come-on. Why can't you act like a normal man just for a second?"

Zero shook his head and finally faced her again. "Malon, I'm sorry for everything. I've put you through a lot. And I will never leave you, for as long as I fight for life. But right now you're drunk on my smell and I'm suspected of abducting you."

"What's your point?" she pouted. Pursing her mouth, she used a tiny illusion to give herself bright red lipstick.

"I'll see you to wherever you sleep. Then I'll come back here, alone, to sleep. We will wait until the trial is over."

"Just one kiss?" She took a step towards him, breathing in the pheromones.

Zero flinched. "Another woman once said that."

"What did you do?" She smiled, hands clasped in front of her bosom.

"I gave it to her and said 'good night.'" The young warrior turned away and ran a hand through his hair, and his armor began to materialize over his body. "I never saw her again."

00000

A few hours later, in a hidden basement, an insubstantial grey figure knelt in front of the Lady. A mask covered his face, and his knees wavered slightly above the floor.

"Unit G, Give me a full report on last night."

The ghost man up a teleconsole, on which his words appeared in the form of text.

_"Yes, Lady. The Subject L, called Malon Haolin, obtained knowledge of the trap door as planned. After entry the Subject L stayed roughly ten minutes. The Subject Z escorted the Subject L out the same way it came. The Subject L acted drunk." _

"Drunk? Explain."

_"It did not walk normally. It made movements associated with irrational behavior. The Subject Z carried it. Drunk." _

"Hmm. Very well, continue."

_"The Subject Z carried the Subject L to its car and drove it to its apartment. The subjects entered by a window and the Subject Z left immediately after. The Subject Z returned on foot to the Cainson domain and entered through the trap door. The police video feeds on the roof did not transmit its image or the image of the Subject L during the entire night. They were tampered with." _

The Lady put her hands on her hips. "Did the subjects kiss at any time?"

"_Not that we were able to see, Lady." _

"Did Subject Z have any makeup stains on his face?"

_"We did not see any, Lady. There was no evidence of intimacy."_

"Unbelievable, even for Zero. Keep Subject L under observation and stay undetected. That is all."

When Unit G had left, the Lady frazzled her hair. "So, no chance of infection. What a pain. I wish those darn ghost men would talk like normal people."

00000

Malon Haolin awoke the next morning in her own room. Her sinuses ached dully. Rubbing her forehead and groaning, the young woman's eyes suddenly popped wide and she dug her face into the pillow.

"I can't believe I said all—and he didn't even kiss—gah. ------ him and his smell, anyway." She pinched herself on the arm.

Then she stopped, her hands rising to her throat where Zero's fingers had closed around it. There was no residual damage. Slumping back in the bed, the young woman shuddered.

"I'll protect you from that, Zero," she whispered. "Whatever it takes, I'll protect you."


	14. Chapter 13: Lover

**Chapter Thirteen: Lover**

Zero and Cpt. Nagasaki locked stares for the fourth time that morning.

"I have known her since childhood. I will escort her."

"Miss Cainson cannot be in the backseat of a car with a suspected murderer."

"I did no wrong. You know this."

"It is not done. I will escort her, for her safety and for her good appearances."

The crimson warrior settled back into his chair. Across the table, Nagasaki did the same. They sat in one of the many comfortable first floor rooms of House Cainson. After only a week's wait, the jury for the warrior's and programmer's trial had been selected and the prosecution was ready to go down fighting. This particular morning, the amateur lawyer's protectors waited for her and her brother to come down the stairs and announce their readiness to leave.

"Iris," Zero countered, emphasizing the young lady's first name, "can handle appearances. She will be safer with me. I am by far the stronger." He folded his arms.

Nagasaki's eyes narrowed. "Your overconfidence will leave you wide open. That is a danger I cannot allow."

"Your reasoning is flawed. I'm faster than you, too."

"I am much more experienced. Miss Cainson will make the final choice."

"She will."

00000

Meanwhile, in Flash's bedroom, Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard argued fruitlessly with the lunatic programmer. Picard had donned his most somber purple and black scale mail, while Flash, as usual, wore his tunic like a rainbow-colored seizure. The handsome policeman, gritting his teeth against the sight of the tunic, held out a stylishly designed outfit in dark colors.

"Do I look like I care? Do I?" The programmer turned his head away.

"No, that's the problem, sir. The judge will take it as an insult to the court if you dress like that. Again." Picard offered the clothes again. "Just try it on, sir, please."

"No one said anything last time."

"Yes, sir, they did. A lot of things."

"Fine. I'll go in naked."

"That's about the worst-case scenario, right there, sir," Cramer said from a shadow. He beamed an encrypted message to his fellow lieutenant. _John, I can't see any way for this to end well. Let's retreat before we do any more damage._

"Yes, damage," Flash muttered. "Retreat, that's the old college way. Hoo-rah."

Cramer's head drooped and he sighed. "What a pain."

Picard shielded his eyes from the tunic as the mad programmer wandered out of the room to the door. "Yes. A violent, stabbing pain to my fashion sense, Conan."

"Sorry. I thought you'd be able to make something else he'd like to wear." Cramer left the concealing shadow and followed Flash out. "Don't blame yourself."

00000

Over an hour later, several police vehicles stopped outside of the courthouse and deposited a few of the 71st Elites, the Cainson siblings, and Zero Doppler. Over a dozen green caped warriors held back the cheering crowds and telejournalists. Several spectators threw rice.

"What the heck? Do they think this is a wedding?" Officer Smith growled. His heavy pink plate mail and permanent scowl resplendent in the light of day, the warrior already stood at the front of the courthouse. As most of the gunman's fellow Elite warriors climbed out of the convoy, he and another member of the brigade waited by the double doors into the grand judicial structure.

Kurosaki, that other member, nodded, grimacing. His bone white armor looked far less frightening in the glow of morning. "Idiots. Up in a frenzy over that woman."

"She's not so great. Snobby."

"Dunno what they see in her."

A moment of silence passed between the warriors. They watched their captain step out of one of the cars and lead Iris out by the hand.

"She's got her hooks in the Captain, though."

"Yep."

The rear door on the far side of the car opened, and Zero circled around the rear of the vehicle to stand at Iris's right hand. Smith's eyes widened and he broke into cussing.

"That ------- looks like he's gonna hold her hand. Come on, Captain, keep her away from him…"

"The ------- red ------- Shouldn't be allowed inside ten miles of someone like her."

"Ugh. Hey, they're coming. Get ready with the doors."

Kurosaki and Smith watched their captain carefully and waited at attention. The silver armored policeman flicked a hidden signal as he, Iris, Zero, Flash, and Cramer ascended the wide marble stairs to the courthouse entrance. On cue the two male officers swung the doors wide for the party's entrance, and quickly closed the heavy wooden portal behind them.

"Holy snipe, she looked right at me."

"Liar."

00000

Back at the 71st Elites HQ, Alia Sorores and Jeri Cato laughed uncontrollably. The lieutenant managed a few words with her hand over her belly. "Don't those fatheads know we can hear them?"

"They're so thick! I can't stand it!" Jeri giggled like a schoolgirl. She glanced over at the third spotter and only man of the group.

Officer Zemorah, ignoring both of his companions, stared unblinking at one of the windows on his teleconsole. As his dark green eyes locked intently on a certain video feed, the spotter received a smart thwack to the head.

Jeri stuttered at him, the rosy blush of laughter now adorning a glare. "Y-y-you're worse than Smith and Kurosaki. Get your eyes off her, pervert."

Zemorah rubbed his head and smiled at her weakly. "Come on, Jeri, I'm doing my job. We have to watch and make sure she's safe."

The pink-haired officer's glare hardened. "There's nothing about her butt that's going to hurt her. Get y-y-y-your head in the game."

Lt. Sorores' voice snapped like a nine-tailed whip, her humor suddenly gone. "Zemorah, Cato, stay off each other and on your job. You two are on thin ice." Instantly, the policewoman's subordinates dropped into their chairs and began typing busily at their teleconsoles.

00000

Iris glided through the hall of the courthouse like a swan across a pond, flanked on one side by Zero and on the other by Cpt. Nagasaki. The silversteel covered police warrior's spear rattled slightly in its sheath; the young man in the scarlet and black armor went without weapons or shield while inside the courthouse. Iris stood about 5'8", above average for a woman in that region of Diamond Earth, but both warriors stood over six inches taller than her. Nagasaki was a little larger and bulkier than Zero, but not by much. Flash trailed along behind, arguing with Lt. Cramer.

Cramer wore, as usual when not on a hot mission, his white ninja suit, his custom green police cape, and a golden badge with his name and rank on. Flash still sported, as always when not dead or hospitalized, his blindingly colored tunic, drab cargo pants and heavy tool belt.

The young hacker of the upstanding brown hair prattled on against Cramer's protests. "No, really, naked might be a good look, I should try it, I found out the ladies love—"

At this line of reasoning Zero snapped around to face the mad programmer. "Flash, go to your happy place. Don't talk about women, whatever you do." His sapphire eyes narrowed.

Flash grinned and winked. "Ah, oh, yeah, got it, mm-hmm, that's right, I see—"

"Happy place. Quiet happy place."

Iris beamed at Cpt. Nagasaki. "I'm so glad your team could continue to guard us, sir. It's very comforting to be so well protected after what happened last week."

The police captain grunted, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. "It's been a long time since anything like this's happened, Miss Cainson. You have the cultists in the government on the run."

Zero's gaze flicked from Iris to the Captain, and back to Iris. "If they come for you again, Iris, I'll be ready. Count on it."

The young woman smiled and thanked him. Behind her back, the Captain's golden eyes bored into the crimson warrior's angular face.

"With the 71st Elites on the job, no one can even get close to you, Miss Cainson." Nagasaki gave Iris a fatherly look as she turned back to him.

"Whatever happens, stick by me." Zero tilted up his chin and winked at the young woman.

Iris looked from one warrior to the other, her smile pinned firmly in place. She watched as her two protectors locked glares for the ninth time. Zero's clear blue eyes flashed like a growing hurricane, and Nagasaki's scarred visage recalled the ageless resolution of a mountain face. The brunette carefully said nothing, but continued to walk along beside them.

Flash giggled to himself, wandering through his happy place. "I'm sleeping beauty!"

00000

After the usual complex formalities, Zero walked away from his seat by Iris, Flash, and the Captain and took the stand at the front of the courtroom. The crimson warrior sat, his shoulders tight and his expression reminiscent of a particularly high, chilly glacier.

When the young man had taken the stand, the prosecuting attorney stood and read from his teleconsole. Previously introduced to the court as Grant Long, the tall, thin specimen wore a dark suit tailored to his bony features. The lawyer spoke in an airy tenor.

"Mr. Doppler, I'd like to start off by reviewing some parts of your past for the sake of the jury. Is it true that you attended Hurricane Force Academy, one of this great servers' premier warrior colleges?"

"Yes."

"Is it also true that you made few friends there, sir? That other students kept away from you?"

"Yes."

"Is it true that most students there considered you a threat, and that even many of the masters worried about the strength of your abilities?"

"Yes."

Long paused. "You don't deny any of this?"

"It's all true."

The prosecutor took a lengthy step forwards, closing the distance between him and the defendant to less than three feet. "Well. As a matter of fact, Mr. Doppler, there's a lot more about your exploits at HFA that I feel would interest the court. From what the dean of students said, you—"

"I dueled countless HFA students, defeated several HFA combat masters, and once beat a man unconscious with a real weapon he'd disguised as a trainer. He left the academy in disgrace."

Long's jaw went slack for a moment, his skeletal frame jerking a step away from the crimson warrior. "You admit all of that?"

"Yes. I admit they all elected to fight me." Zero's eyes stared through the lawyer's gaunt visage.

Long paused again, and his face smoothed out. "Mr. Doppler, please restrain yourself. Do not speak unless in direct answers to my questions.

"Now, sir, according to the Dean of Students, you did make one friend. She was fourteen at the time, an orphaned girl who'd just arrived at the university. She was young, emotionally fragile, and one of the weakest fighters to enter HFA when she ran into you, sir, a deadly warrior only months away from graduation. Members of the jury, please direct your attention to the screen over here to see a photo of Celestia Kyuubit, Mr. Doppler's young lover."

Iris rose to her feet with a rustle of her beautifully designed indigo skirt. Her amber eyes glinted and her chin tilted to a regal angle. "Objection. No account exists supporting any past sexual relationship between the defendant and Miss Kyuubit. Also, Mr. Long's remarks imply that Zero was significantly older than Miss Kyuubit, when their records clearly state she was only a year younger than he was at that time."

In response to the young lady's hauteur, Justice Mendleson glared at the prosecutor. "Objection sustained. Mr. Long, please revise your remarks."

For an instant Long raised his eyebrows at the judge, but in the end he took back his previous paragraph. That done, the lawyer continued. "I assure you, members of the jury, that I meant no deception. Now, please take a good look at the face of Celestia Kyuubit, fourteen years old, last seen alive on an evening out with Zero Doppler."

Murmurs rolled through the courtroom and there was a general rustling. People turned in their seats to look at the screen unrolling down from the ceiling. When it had fully extended, the five foot square monitor stiffened and blinked into life, and a photograph appeared onscreen. The eyes of the audience and the jury searched the magnified image of Celestia's frail young face, occasionally glancing back towards the crimson warrior at the stand.

Zero's slowly turned his head, his shoulders tightening and his visage frozen. He closed his eyes, and opened them to gaze once more on the countenance of the first girl he'd ever kissed.


	15. Chapter 14: Character

**Chapter Fourteen: Character**

His muscles tensed as if to spring, Zero sat at the stand staring at the magnified photograph of his college girlfriend. Memories washed over his mind like wine soured long ago to vinegar.

00000

Crowds milled endlessly through the room, lines twisting this way and that under a ceiling vaulted to a peak forty feet above them. Chandeliers of flawless, shining cut glass and quartz hung from a ceiling graced with the finest ivory and metal detail work available in the Wind server. Murals decorated the walls, and the floor was one massive mosaic of glittering gemstones. To call this place a registrar would be like calling Notre Dame of Old Earth a nice little church house. It was the reception office of Hurricane Force Academy, arguably the Wind server's premier warrior university.

Somewhere in the masses of students, parents, families, and teachers, Zero wandered away from one of the many desks manned by the finely dressed receptionists. As always, he wore his crimson armor with its white accents overtop the black bodysuit. The teenager's corn blond ponytail waved slightly from side to side with his measured gait.

Abruptly, the warrior stopped. Cutting through the hesitant goodbyes, the weeping of family members, and the whoops of joy from returning students, a small, barely audible noise twanged harshly against his ears. Zero turned towards the sound, a teenage girl's soft whimper of terror.

Slipping through the crowd like a tiger through the jungle, the blond reached the source in a matter of seconds. The girl in question had shut her eyes tight, gripping her one small bag of luggage like a holy symbol in a crypt full of the restless dead. She stood totally still a few yards from the entrance to the building.

In a subconscious and highly male undercurrent of thought, Zero noted a number of the girl's physical details. Shoulder length blond hair, tinted with reddish highlights, framed the girl's delicate facial features. She wore rosy chain mail over bland, generic clothes that did nothing to accentuate her form; fortunately, her form didn't need much accentuating. Furry fox ears and tail lent the vulpine touch to the whole five foot, four inch package, and a pouch at her hip clinked in the specific way small weaponry sometimes clinks.

Zero stood a few feet away, frowning. No one but him seemed to be paying the petrified warrior girl any attention; no friends or family stood by her or comforted her. The crimson warrior reassumed a placid expression and took another step forward, bringing him close enough to talk to her through the ambient noise. "Miss? Is everything all right?"

Celestia Kyuubit's brown eyes jerked open and she stumbled away from the tall young warrior, right into the back of a random bystander. She yelped and spun to see who she'd run into, her hair whirling loose around her face. A short man with a bemused expression turned towards her, and Celestia tripped over her own feet into Zero's arms.

He smiled down into the girl's face as she stared up into his sapphire eyes. "Let go of everything. You are safe."

Celestia shook uncontrollably while her vocal subprocessor locked up. Other processors shut down, and she failed to notice the crowd beginning to congeal around the two of them. She could only see the clear blue eyes, set in the smiling angular face.

Her vision swam and the young woman shut her eyes again, curling up around her bag as Zero picked her up. She weighed about a hundred and twenty pounds, and the armor and luggage another thirty pounds. He hefted her mass with smooth, easy grace, like she was simultaneously lighter than a bag of feathers and more fragile than a china doll.

Ignoring the murmuring people, the young man made his way out of the building and into the light of afternoon, his path leading off to a building up by the campus tennis courts. A group of older warrior students noticed him carrying the slightly vulpine girl and made catcalls, but no one seemed much inclined to stop him.

A few minutes later, Zero kicked open the door of the campus counseling center. The waiting room, not particularly loud in any case, went dead quiet when he walked in with the strawberry blonde in his arms. A fifth-year student working as a receptionist appeared at the window into the offices beyond, took one look at the crimson warrior's burden, and called out for someone named Mrs. Naide.

A tall, willowy woman opened the door into the waiting room where Zero stood with Celestia. She quickly ushered him into an inner chamber and ordered the corn blond to lay the girl down on the couch.

Counselor Sara Naide's dark, beryl green eyes settled on the warrior boy as he placed the voluptuous teenager on the cushions. Zero looked up at the woman watching him.

"I don't know her. I don't know who does. She was panicking in the registrar. She's not hurt physically. Please help her."

Naide's expression changed at his words. "Of course I'll do my best, Zero. Thank you for bringing her here…I should be able to find out what's wrong. Still, I'll need you to stay in the area, just in case. Do you have your teleconsole on you?...good. I'll send you a message when she comes around."

Zero bowed and left the little room. He passed the ill-concealed stares and hastily stilled whispers in the waiting area and walked out of the building. Looking back at the campus counseling center, the young blond sighed.

The heel of his boot had put a crack in the wood of the front door.

00000

Two weeks later, the dying light of day setting his ponytail aglow, Zero rolled his eyes. "Not my girlfriend."

Flash Cainson, five years older than the warrior (at least in body), wore the same blinding tunic that would characterize his entire existence. He snickered. "Fine. A second shadow. A lovesick puppy. A fangirl. It's all good in the hood, brutha'."

The young crimson warrior reached across the table and flicked the mad programmer on the ear. "Don't make her sound pathetic. She just needs help adjusting. The orphanage never prepared her for academy life." He sipped his tea, the best that the campus café had to offer.

Flash snickered again. "Sure. Where're you taking her tonight, Casanova?"

"That act by the Rockwaller group. Stay away."

"He he he heh. You better get going. Let me know if you need help."

"Yeah. Have fun yourself, Flash." Zero walked out into the parking lot of the café and got on his motorcycle. He paused a moment to check his TC for incoming letters, and sighed at the subject lines of the messages: three challenges to duel, various hate mails, and the weekly letter from Malon. The crimson warrior stuffed the teleconsole back into its holster and whizzed off into traffic, speeding towards a certain apartment complex.

00000

"The Rockwaller group? Who're they?" Celestia's wide brown eyes searched Zero's placid face. Both wore their armor, as usual. Celestia, however, sported flattering new clothes underneath, in addition to a modestly expensive necklace that complemented her rosy chain mail.

"Comedians. The act is best live. You'll love it." He smiled at her.

"Okay." The foxy girl leaned back against the wall of her apartment's frontmost room. "Zero, I love everything we do together, but…" she stared at her feet. "You don't have to do this. I can figure things out on my own; you don't have to babysit me like I'm a little girl."

The crimson warrior's brow furrowed. "Wait. Why are you saying this?"

Celestia turned away. "When you came to me my first day here, you saved me. I was so scared of the crowds, and the open space, and all the newness…" she gulped at the memory. "Ever since then you've been taking care of me, getting me a place to live, finding me nice things to wear, and taking me places. I can't stand being such a burden."

Zero frowned and shook his head. "It's not like that. You're not a burden."

The foxy warrior girl shook her head violently, her strawberry blond hair whipping around her face. "I can't tie you down like this. I mean, you deserve someone better than me. Someone who's really worth something."

"No." The crimson warrior propped an arm against the wall and tilted the girl's face up to look in his. He leaned in close to put his sapphire eyes in front of her warm brown ones. "Stop thinking like that. You are a precious, wonderful girl, Celes. More valuable than anything else in the world. More dear to me than my life. Don't ever think otherwise, ever again."

He stopped, blinking as he processed the words that had poured out of his mouth. Celestia stood up straight, away from the wall, bringing the two teenagers within inches of one another. "You can't mean that," she said breathlessly.

Zero blinked again. His expression steeled slightly as he gazed into her shining brown eyes. "Every word."

He looped his arms around her shoulders, and the warrior girl slid her hands up the small of his back. The pair of blonds embraced, their armor clinking and rattling in the way of finely wrought chain on heavy plate mail.

Lying on the couch in front of the big screen TC, Celestia's roommate pretended to gag. "Take it outside, you two. I'm trying to watch a movie here."

00000

In response to the prosecutor's pounding hail of questions, Zero slowly revealed meaty chunks of his college life to the court. He'd entered college two years early, shot through the most advanced curriculum like a ballistic missile, and graduated in a little over three years at the age of fifteen. At that point he'd begun teaching the class of a combat master who'd resigned in disgrace after losing eight separate battles to the crimson warrior.

After exhausting this line of inquiry, Long shifted the focus of his questions, backtracking a few months to Zero's last semester as a student. Back to the missing Celestia.

00000

The pair of teenagers variously laughed and moaned in the top of the belltower, the sounds drifting gently into the deepening night.

"Honestly, I'm nearly the best there is at this."

"No way. You're so bad it hurts," Celestia giggled again.

"Insults. I don't know why I still try with you," Zero groaned.

"Hah. And you're always acting like such a big man. You can't stand to lose, not even a friendly game of checkers!" She waved at the board.

He frowned and sat up straighter. "I can lose. I lose to you at chess and Go all the time. It's that your shorts are too short. You distracted me."

Silence followed this statement. Zero looked away as the female warrior's eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect O.

"I'm sorry, I—"

Celestia put her hand on his. "No, don't be sorry. I thought something must be wrong with me, that you didn't notice me that way. I mean, three months, and you've never even tried to kiss me."

Zero's eyes, brightly blue in the foxy girl's night vision, flicked over to hers, but only briefly. His stare returned to the darkest corner of the belltower. "I've never kissed a girl. I don't know how."

Celestia stared, wide-eyed, for a half minute. "No. I'm…you've never had a girlfriend before? You've never even locked lips with someone just for fun? I mean, not that I have, but I thought everyone did that kind of thing. You really haven't?"

"Yeah. That's right." Zero consulted his inner clock and rose to his feet. "We must get back. It's past curfew."

Celestia jumped up as well, contriving to trip over the checkers board and fall against the crimson warrior. She regained her balance but stayed close. "I could be your first. You know, for practice. Your first kiss?"

Zero stepped back, licking his suddenly dry lips. His processors thrummed away in his torso, calculating and recalculating potential outcomes. One by one, all but the most primal of them locked up in endless loops. "Aargh."

"Just a quick one, to say good night. Just one?"

"Nnnngh. Yes. Please." His helmet dissolved, leaving him wide open. He reached for her, and she tilted up her chin to look into his hungry eyes.

"King me," she whispered.

After a long, busy moment, Zero broke off. Celestia grinned, showing off her little fangs.

"You're the genius at this game. Play some more?"

The corn blond gasped and backed away, his eyes like saucers. "You're one sexy demon fox, Celes. No. I couldn't stop if we started again."

"You're so mean to me!" the warrior of the rosy armor mock-slapped her boyfriend's chest plate. "Are you even going to walk me home?"

"Yeah." Zero wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and stared at the dark red mark on the black glove. "How long have you been wearing lipstick?"

"Three months now. I thought you'd be able to tell, with your super senses." She leapt onto one windowsill of the tower to stand silhouetted against the night, hands on hips.

"My senses are flawed. I didn't realize you wanted to kiss." He hopped up to stand with her, and they took off over the campus rooftops. They left the checkers board behind, completely forgotten in the excitement.

Silence reigned as the two teenagers leapt from building to building, faster and quieter than the shadows of birds, towards Celestia's motel-style apartment complex. In short order they arrived at the door, #303 Quartz Terrace. Standing outside the darkened windows, they looked at each other wordlessly for several slow seconds.

Finally, Zero spoke, his voice soft. "Celes, I'll graduate from the Academy in a few weeks."

She nodded, her gaze dropping to her boots. Her musical soprano came out in a whisper. "I know. I won't hold you back, Zero. When you go—"

"No, I'm not leaving. I've been invited to teach here."

The foxy girl backed up to lean heavily against the apartment wall. "Really?"

"Yes. But I won't be a student. I'll be a master. Masters can't date students."

"Don't worry about that," Celestia insisted breathily. "I'll quit the academy if I have to. I couldn't live without you."

"We're too young to think like that. Slow down." He sighed, and walked over to lean against the wall next to her. He grasped her hand. "Slow down. Think of your future."

Her visage twisting into a mask of fury, the foxy warrior jerked her hand out of his and covered her face, her chain mail armored back rattling against the wall as she collapsed into a defensive curl. "I knew it! I knew it I knew it I knew it! You've never loved me, you just pretended. You'll toss me aside when you're done with me, like they did in the orphanage!" The last words came out in a dismal sob.

Zero hauled the warrior bodily to her feet and her knee came up in a vicious reflex. He caught the attack with one hand and crushed the smaller and lighter warrior's body in close to his. Their armor clinked in the night as he kissed her again and again. "I—won't—let—you—believe—that."

Finally, after Celestia began to reciprocate, Zero released her. His words came out like a low tenor caress. "Never compare me to the scum that ran the orphanage. Never believe I don't love you. Never believe I won't protect you. You are worth all of heaven and earth to me."

She looked into his sapphire eyes and smiled a small, wobbly smile. She took one of his black-gloved hands and clasped it in both of hers. "You're the most wonderful man I've ever known, Zero. No one else ever cared about me like you do. You've given so much to me." She smiled wider, her tail twitching, and pulled his hand over to rest on her collarbone. "I want you to know, I can give back, too. Whenever you want, just say the word, and I'll give you everything I have."

Zero blushed and pulled free. "Eh. Neh. No. Don't, Celestia. Don't reduce yourself to that. You're not just a body. You're heavenly, like your name."

He frowned, his brow creased. Yet, when he looked at her up and down, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. "You really are a sexy demon fox. But you're so much more besides. Never, ever forget that."

Celestia nodded, staring at the ground. "Okay."

Zero stood there a moment, his forehead wrinkling. His hands fidgeted by his sides. Abruptly, he picked up the warrior girl around the waist and whirled her around like she was filled with fluff, not burdened with armor. She gasped and laughed at the rush of motion.

Watching her face, the warrior boy put her down and smiled. "Good night, Celes." He ruffled her strawberry blond hair and fox ears. "See you tomorrow."

The girl hopped over and stole a quick, passionate kiss from him before he turned to go. "See you tomorrow, Zero."

00000

Tomorrow hadn't come. They had never found so much of a trace of where she'd gone. Zero trembled, thinking of the weeks out with Flash and the search patrols, hunting for a pair of blond fox ears, for a musical soprano voice, for a teenage girl he'd never see again. She had left as suddenly as had his parents, two years before, and the crimson warrior had never found so much as a broken blade of grass to mark their passing. First them, now her. Gone.

"I don't know where she went. I don't know." he choked out in answer to the prosecutor's last question. Zero's head drooped, and as judge, jury, lawyers, and audience watched in stunned silence, hot tears dripped down the warrior's face like blood from a wound.

Prosecuting attorney Grant Long's expression darkened. "You don't know. You admit to your involvement with little Celestia, to seeing her the night of her disappearance. You admit that she would have quit school to continue her relationship with you, that this little girl loved you more than anything else in the world, and then you tell us she didn't give the faintest hint that she was leaving? Do you really expect us to believe that? Do you?!"

Zero tilted his chin upwards, his nostrils flaring. "She didn't leave. She was kidnapped. There is no other explanation."

"Stop lying to the jury, Doppler! There was no forced entry into that apartment! Celestia's roommate never even saw her come home!"

Long slammed his fist onto the stand in front of Zero's face. "They never caught you for it, but we all know what happened! You raped her, raped her and killed her the same way you tried to do to Malon Haolin. You scum, how can you sit there and expect us to believe you're innocent!"

Judge Mendleson watched Iris throughout the exchange, but the young woman kept her seat and threw no more objections. In fact, he saw that she was smiling very slightly. His Honor glanced at the jury, noting them to be visibly astonished rather than angry. Those few with stormy expressions seemed more focused on Long than Zero.

Meanwhile, the crimson warrior's visage did not change; when the bony old lawyer's hand thwacked the wood next to him, he didn't even blink. "There is no evidence that she returned to her apartment and was kidnapped afterwards. There is also no evidence that I raped or killed her. Nothing can be proven either way. But I am innocent." One last tear dripped off his chin as his eyes began to dry.

Long made a noise in his throat and turned away. For the first time in a few minutes he looked directly at the jury, and several members of the jury glared back. Long's expression contorted into a grimace for an instant before calming to a deep frown. "Look long and hard at the picture on the screen, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Celestia Kyuubit was fourteen years old when she disappeared. Malon Haolin nearly died only two weeks ago. Can you really let this man go free, after all he's done to these women?

"Your Honor, I'm done questioning Mr. Doppler." He spat the name like a curse. Murmurs rippled through the audience once more. Justice Mendleson called for order, quieting them, and Iris rose to speak.

"Your Honor, permission to cross-examine the defendant?"

"Granted. By all means, Miss Cainson."

"Thank you. Mr. Doppler, Zero, the charges against you are very serious, and Mr. Long has chosen to call up your character for review. I'm afraid I'll have to bring up some sensitive subjects again in order to give the court a fair view of your relationship with Celestia Kyuubit and, by extension, your behavior with all women. It's going to be very personal, but the jury needs to know how you act towards women to help them see the truth about Malon. I'll be going over some ground that Long has already covered, so I ask you to bear with me. Oh, and I have a handkerchief, if you'd like."

Zero took the proffered cloth and roughly wiped his tearstained face, then returned it to her. His visage had mostly smoothed out, but his shoulders remained tense. The expanded photograph of the blond's college girlfriend had been removed from the TC, but his gaze slipped briefly to the blank black screen before he focused on Iris. "Thank you. Fire away."

"Very well. Zero, when did you first meet Miss Kyuubit?"

"In the Hurricane Force Academy registrar on the first day of my third year."

"What age were you then, Zero?"

"Fourteen. Nearly fifteen."

"And Miss Kyuubit?"

"Fourteen."

Iris smiled, her amber eyes warm. "You were both very young. How did you meet?"

"I was walking through the crowd. She was panicked. I took her to the psych doctors."

"Yes, by all reports Miss Kyuubit was an emotionally fragile girl, and especially terrified of crowds. Zero, you were very perceptive to realize how desperate she was and take appropriate action. A real life knight in shining armor. What happened after you brought her in to get her counseling?"

"I left. A few hours later Celes' psych doctor sent me a message. She asked me to help her adjust."

"What did you do to help her, Zero?"

"Got her registered for classes, got her an apartment, showed her around, found her some better clothes. I had money and skills she didn't. The orphanage gave her nearly nothing when she left."

Iris nodded. "Yes, the orphanage. The people that ran it have long since been brought to justice, but from what I understand it wasn't soon enough for Miss Kyuubit. Apparently she had been emotionally abused for years at that orphanage, and sexually abused as well, before she gained warrior powers at her christening.

"Of course, you already know that." Iris' downcast expression lightened a little. "She told you everything about herself, didn't she?"

Zero nodded. "She had been hurting her whole life. She needed a confidant." His sapphire eyes narrowed as they swept the courtroom. "Celes was a genius, much smarter than me. She deserved a good education. She deserved a good family. She deserved a good place to stay, and nice things to have. I gave her all I could give."

The brunette cocked her head. "Is that why you spent so much time and money on her? Because you felt sorry for her?"

"No. It was much more than that. I was in love with her, and she felt the same for me," he stated evenly.

Iris nodded. "I believe you. So does every other person that saw you two together. In fact, Zero, I need to ask a few questions about your relationship with Miss Kyuubit prior to her disappearance. They're going to be very personal. Is that all right?"

The crimson warrior looked away for a moment, but dragged his eyes back to Iris' face. "Yes. I'll talk."

"In the three months you knew her, how much time did you spend with Miss Kyuubit?"

The young man's processors worked quietly for a few seconds. "About two hundred and thirty hours. Average, two and a half hours a day."

"You'll have to pardon me if I notice that's a lot of time to spend with one girl. Just how well did you get to know her?" Iris' dark amber eyes gazed unblinking into her champion's clear blue ones.

"She told me her darkest secrets. I soothed her deepest fears. She held all my confidence in return. She knew things even Flash didn't. We needed each other." He watched her expression, his countenance like cut marble. "No. We weren't sexually intimate."

Iris blew out a breath. "Zero, by your own account you'd known each other very, very well for months and you spent three hours' time alone in that bell tower with Miss Kyuubit. Please be completely honest. Did a couple of games of checkers really take that long?"

"She was brilliant and I was stubborn. We did not have sex."

"You did kiss her, however."

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"About half a minute."

"Did she want to keep kissing? Did you?"

"Yes. We both did. But it might have gone farther. I didn't want that. We stopped and I escorted her home."

"You didn't say she didn't want to go farther than kissing, Zero. Why didn't you say that?" Iris stood with her hands on the stand, her eyebrows raised at him.

He stared back. The blond's processors hummed quietly as he searched the brunette's dark amber eyes. He had never, ever told anyone about Celestia's sexual offer, and had already committed perjury by the omission. It was the one thing about her he'd kept secret, and he'd kept it secret for a long, long time. Eventually, the young man spoke.

"Celestia had no father. She had no brothers. No friends. Every man in her life had either ignored or abused her from the time she could speak. They broke her inside, made her think she was nothing but a body to be used." His fists clenched at his sides behind the low wooden walls of the stand. "I was the first to tell her otherwise. I protected her instead of hurting her. I treasured her instead of using her. I gave instead of taking away, and she wanted to repay me. Thanks to the scum from the orphanage, she thought she had to repay me with sex. If I'd accepted, I'd be just like them."

He looked away, and for the briefest second, Iris put her hand on the young man's cheek. He froze as she delivered a message directly into his communication buffer.

_Thank you, Zero. I'm truly sorry I had to put you through that._

The crimson warrior made no response. His beautiful amateur attorney quickly pulled away and turned to the jury.

"Gentlemen and ladies, this young man's testimony speaks for itself. Miss Kyuubit was totally devoted to her young boyfriend. He was the only man she ever loved. He couldn't have raped her, because she would sooner give herself up to him. He couldn't have killed her, because he would be killing a part of himself.

"According to the masters of the college as well as his classmates, Mr. Doppler went for weeks without a reboot searching for Miss Kyuubit when she disappeared. He stopped only after his system crashed from lack of sleep and the rest of the search team pulled him home to safety. To this day, he can barely speak of these events.

"This young man is a passionate guardian of those he loves, not a criminal. Mr. Long shames this court and this city to pretend you could mistake a hero so brave for a villain so vile."

The audience stood and cheered; Long's expression stiffened.

"Why the heck are they clapping?" He hissed at his fellow prosecutor.

The other attorney shrugged. "Right now they'd cheer for her if she declared martial law and banned hard liquor." And later that night, he confided to his mistress: "But it doesn't help that Long is the most incompetent of Sigma's hyenas ever to bribe and blackmail his way into a job with the government, either."

In the moment, the attorney looked to the judge for support, but Justice Mendleson was smiling his wide, toadlike smile at the uproar. The pair of prosecutors sat helpless while all over Stormy Hill and lands beyond, the people watched Iris turned their trial on its head.


	16. Chapter 15: Honor

**Chapter Fifteen: Honor**

A little over a week had passed since Iris had declared Zero "a passionate guardian of those he loves" to the cheers of the courtroom and people everywhere. The Lt.'s Alia Sorores and Jean-Pierre Picard sat in the honey blond spotter's apartment's tiny front room. Neither wore either cape or badge at the moment. Picard lay back against the couch with his hands on his head, his body relaxed against the soft, yet springy cushions. He had momentarily set aside his armor in favor of a gentleman's sport coat.

"For all your faults, Alia, you surely know the value of a good couch," the warrior sighed, his clothes rustling against the couch as he shifted slightly.

"John, pay attention. Every news network is picking this story up."

"I'm busy thinking about those new recruits. Those blue ones, the brothers. They're crazy, you know."

"Look at this TC or get off my couch, lazy fool."

"Hmmmm. All right, no need to drop a database on me." He scooted in closer to Alia and gazed at the screen. The spotter turned up the volume and flipped through channels.

"In another stunning turn of events, Councilman Thurber's involvement with the cult of Sigma was revealed in court—"

"—the police seem unwilling to explain how Miss Cainson obtained evidence of the crimes, but arrested—"

"The court' focus somehow turned from Flash Cainson and Zero Doppler to the powers responsible for their arrest and imprisonment. Iris Cainson—"

"—dazzlingly dressed as always, the young woman turned political crusader reveals another—"

"—days of corruption in the government are over! No more kangaroo trials! The Cult is leaving Stormy Hill for good!" A cheering crowd served as backdrop to the loudly dressed media man. "Give a big round of applause to Miss Iris Cainson, amateur attorney and full-time—"

"Well." Alia turned down the sound again. "You get the picture."

Jean-Pierre laughed. "So she's a brilliant, popular lawyer with good informants and a worthy cause. A lady I can appreciate. That's marvelous, not scary."

"John, you know better than anyone the grip the cultists have on this town. You know they're going to move on her again."

Jean-Pierre's smile faded. "I remember Goliath Street, Alia." His lavender eyes bored into her. "Don't pretend that I could forget my men."

She scowled. "I know you couldn't."

The stylishly dressed lieutenant cocked his head, his face twitching into a smile once more. "So, you want me to pull a few strings for Miss Cainson, am I right? Work over a few of those fancy plutocrats I party with? Get them on her side?"

Alia nodded. "Something like that. Do whatever it is you do, John, just help us get her some goodwill with those people. It would go a long way to keeping her safe." She was still frowning at him.

He laughed the polite laugh of the very rich. "Women. You're a never-ending source of enjoyment. I have a perfect idea." He slipped his own TC out of a pocket and dragged a particular message to the forefront. Alia looked at the screen, her glare lightening a little.

"An invitation to a ball? That's—"

"Brilliant, I know. Alia, I have one question."

The brown-eyed blond regarded him tensely, still frowning. "What is it?"

"How long ago did Miss Cainson put you up to this? I want to know how long she's known she could get to high society through me, and to me through you."

Alia's frown deepened into a scowl. "Son of a gun. Get out of my apartment."

00000

Iris smiled, sipping her tea at the head of the little table. Today her dark brown hair fell in ringlets past her shoulders. "Malon, it's such a pleasure to have you and your brothers over. I was expecting your parents to come by again, however. Are they well?"

The vast expanse of the Plum Reception Room spread around them in all its custom decorated glory. In the high-rent district of a busy city, the Cainsons had snagged a 3,500 square foot domain space and put every design and decoration at their disposal to make it look even bigger. By Diamond Earth's digital nature, objects were simply data files anyone could copy with ease; raw materials cost nothing. Space and customization, however, cost everything.

Sitting in a room easily large enough to swallow her entire apartment whole, Malon smiled, her hands curled tightly around her teacup. The young woman had pulled her iridescent black hair into a short ponytail and sported generic, though classic, Capris and a pastel blouse. More to the point, she wore either skillfully applied makeup or an extremely convincing facial illusion; the combination of her natural good looks and subtle cosmetic enhancement had turned heads and slowed foot traffic all the way from her place to the Cainson domain.

Sitting up as straight as the back of her chair, the black-haired beauty smiled more brightly. "They're fine, just fine. How's Flash?"

"Oh, you know." Iris laughed a sparkling little laugh. The brunette's countenance was not as striking as Malon's, but she held the strong advantages of custom fitted clothes and an artful understanding of feminine poise. Malon could interfere with traffic, but Iris could steal screen time from a supermodel. "He's always Flash. If I had half his brains I'd be a lot better off. You know, he insisted on redesigning the entire house the other day. I had to hide in his workshop while he added the third story."

The two women continued to exchange careful pleasantries. Zero, seated next to Malon, stared across the table at her brothers. His gaze shifted from Kai's green eyes to Matt's hazel, finding the same expression in each. Fully decked out in blue plate mail similar to his crimson, and grey bodysuits like his black, neither carried any apparent weapons. They did, however, each sport a green cape and golden badge proclaiming them to be members of the 71st Elite Brigade.

Abruptly, all three warriors stood up at once. Zero spoke first. "Iris, you'll have to excuse us."

Kai's focus never left the crimson warrior. "Malon, we'll be back…sometime."

Matt grinned at Iris, then at his elder sister. "Thanks again for the tea. Catch you later, Mallie."

The two young women smiled and made bright, sunny replies that fell on deaf ears. Zero led the way to the Game Room, across the hall and out of Iris and Malon's hearing.

"Time to clear the air," Kai muttered. "Doppler, that trial has made some things pretty clear. You're not a rat." He glared. "But you're a cold-blooded son of a gun sometimes. Locking lips with Malon just to bait Clawbeast was dirty."

"Yeah. You've got a lot of nerve," Matt added.

"What's your point?" Zero folded his arms.

"Our point is, you're a punk that doesn't deserve someone like our sister." Matt folded his arms too.

Kai glanced down at his brother, five years younger than him. They shared a look, and the elder sibling glared back at Zero. "But she's dead set on you. She covered her flippin' bedroom walls with your ugly mug, and she's watched every second of that dang trial with you in it. That's why we joined the Elites."

Zero blinked. "How did you do that? Matt hasn't even graduated from college."

"Have too," the younger Haolin retorted.

"We've got our secrets." Kai looked down his nose at the crimson warrior. This would have worked, but for the fact that he was only 5'11" to Zero's 6'3". "Point is, our parents went back home to Windy Fountains so they could keep their jobs. Malon's made up her mind to stay here."

"So we got jobs with the Elites to stay close, like Dad wanted." Matt held on to his brother's shoulder and pointed at Zero with his other hand. "So don't try anything funny with her, punk."

"Define funny," Zero said slowly.

Kai twitched. "Maybe we'd better talk somewhere else. Like in front of your open grave."

Matt grinned, eyes popped wide, and shoved his brother backwards. "C'mon guys, let's find an arena somewhere. And trainer weapons. Remember, Kai, we promised Mom and Dad no dying."

"Yeah, I remember. Zero, you ready to go?"

"You want to duel me?"

"Yeah, you bet."

"Why?"

Kai and Matt's faces scrunched up for a moment. "So you know not to mess around with Malon," the elder declared, frowning.

Zero nodded. "So if I lose, I can't touch her. Not unless you say."

"Yeah."

"And if I win, you let me sleep with her?"

00000

Malon and Iris carried on their conversation as the men went out of earshot. "I'm astonished you can keep up such a mansion by yourself, Iris. How do you find the time, especially while you're in court practically every other day?"

"Oh, I had Flash design me a few automatic housekeeping programs when he came back from college. He's very talented." The brunette took a sip of tea.

Malon smiled. "He'd have to be, to clean up the kinds of messes he makes."

Iris paused for a tiny fraction of a second, her amber eyes settling coolly on the other woman's grey ones. Then she laughed the sparkling laugh again. "Yes, he does know how to have fun when he's working."

Malon's smile froze and she pinched herself under the table. "Um, yes, fun. Haha. Say, what do you think the boys are talking about in there?"

The brunette shrugged. "Zero just left Hurricane Force Academy a few weeks ago, and unless I'm mistaken your brothers also graduated recently. I've heard they were both extremely gifted students, by the way, which doesn't surprise me one bit.

"At any rate, the three of them seemed upset. Perhaps we'll have the honor of seeing them duel." She sipped her tea again.

Malon sighed, sitting back in her chair. "I just wish they had stayed in a little longer. They're so overprotective sometimes." She took a long draw from her cup. "Wow. This really is extremely good."

00000

Kai's hand came up in a flash, but suddenly it wasn't a hand any more. It was the barrel of a gun. Light shone from somewhere inside, and the weapon hummed an ascending note. "Over my dead body."

Zero didn't flinch. Matt pushed Kai's arm cannon down. "No dying!" he shouted in his typical carrying voice.

The crimson warrior's eyes flicked to the entryway as Malon and Iris came to the source of the noise. "Malon, I'm dueling your brothers. Iris, I'll be back sometime soon. Sorry for the inconvenience, ladies. Cramer, stop lurking and call in replacement guards."

Lt. Cramer, invisible to the naked eye, blinked. _Alia, we have a situation._

00000

Flash shoved the definitely-not-a-nonlethal-training-sword at him again. "Takeittakeittakeit, just take it, you'll slaughter 'em, no one will know, take it!"

"Flash, a duel is a duel," Zero said for the 826th time in his life so far. "This isn't a death match and they're not like Takato was. No battle hacking, no real weapons." He ignored the proffered weapon and walked out through the changing room door.

At that moment Malon, Iris, Iris' bodyguards, and a smattering of off-duty policemen sat in a sort of theater, dominated at one end by a trio of large-screen TC's. Each teleconsole displayed a different angle of the arena, an empty rectangular room located beneath their feet in Elite HQ's basement. Cat-eared Officer Casselini and burly pink Officer Smith stood nearby, watching the doors to the room.

One of the monitors zoomed in on Zero as he entered the arena and stood at one end. Then the image panned swiftly over to the door on the opposite side as Kai and Matt walked in. Three life bars indicating the simulated life points of each warrior lined up on one side of each of the screens.

Zero sized up his opponents with an eye for detail. Kai stood four inches shorter than himself, and Matt three inches shorter than that. They carried no obvious weapons, but each warrior's posture indicated a readiness to bring up his right hand to fire with his arm cannon, or the trainer simulation thereof. Both wore a set of blue plate mail fitted over a grey bodysuit; the plate mail had sky blue highlights, and brown hair bristled out from under the rounded helmets. They moved like lions, muscles rippling under the bodysuits.

Kai spoke first. "You're sure you want to fight us both at once?"

Zero nodded, his pose still relaxed. "I want you to know you've lost. We finish this here." He flicked the trainer version of his sabre from its sheath and equipped his shield to his left arm. He tensed, as did the Haolin warriors.

"I am Zero. Prepare to lose."

"I am Kai Haolin. For my sister's honor, I will defeat you."

"I'm Matt. Get ready to be whipped by the X Force!"

A buzzer sounded, announcing the beginning of the match. Only a few of the more veteran policemen in the audience registered all of what happened next. Kai lifted his arm cannon and fired a blinding volley of shots as Matt's form blurred. Zero appeared behind the elder Haolin with sabre already darting down for the victory. A purple form zipped in to intercept, its main gauche parrying the longer sabre and turning it to the side.

Matt grinned as his arm cannon discharged into Zero's shield, throwing the crimson warrior back into the wall of the arena. His violet scale mail and main gauche glinted in the glare of the bright white lights.

Malon's eyes widened. She had seen her brothers fight before. "He has Picard style now!"

Iris merely watched, her hand rising to her mouth.

In the time it took Malon to recognize her brother's transformation, he and Kai had both shifted styles and opened up a new can of heat on the crimson warrior. The elder Haolin, pinker and burlier than ever before, fired his double cannon as the younger, white armored Haolin slashed at Zero's legs with a massive falchion.

The crimson warrior tumbled down and barely over the curved training blade. The double cannon shells whiffled through his ponytail in exactly the manner of very, very fast bullets encountering absolutely no resistance. As he began to roll into Matt, Zero's hands braced against the hard stone floor and his body uncoiled in a vicious kick that connected with the young man's chin and snapped his head back with sickening force. On the screens in the theater, over half of Matt's life bar went dark.

Kai fired the double cannon again as Zero tumbled over his brother's falling form. The crimson warrior's kite shield came up to block, and the shells impacted with enough force to dent the shield, stop Zero's roll, and send him flying back again. Matt swayed to his feet as the blond dodged a third shot from the cannon and summoned his machine gun program.

As the gun materialized along the crimson warrior's arm, braced in part by the kite shield, both Haolin warriors grinned and morphed back to their original forms. Zero aimed the ranged weapon while his opponents rushed in close with a pair of heavy battleaxes. At the last moment before they reached him, the crimson warrior dropped the gun and flicked the sabre from its sheath once more.

With no time at all to react to their opponent's perfectly timed, lightning quick change in strategy, Kai and Matt's expressions warped from grins to grimaces. Shouting from the bottoms of their lungs, the two warriors hurled themselves into the melee.

The arena rang with a continuous clash of blades as the Haolins assaulted in rapid tandem, covering each other's openings and following up on each other's attacks. Zero could barely muster a counterattack, and took several grazing hits.

Five seconds of furious hacks, slashes, blocks, and parries later, Matt's battleaxe hooked around the crimson warrior's shield and ripped it right off his forearm, snapping the straps that held it in place. The blond allowed the jerk on his arm to carry him into his opponent and slashed his sabre heavily across the young brunet's belly.

Matt gasped as the blade bit through the bodysuit and drained the rest of his simulated life points. While the blue armored warrior collapsed, his brother roared and brought his battleaxe up against Zero's shieldless left flank.

The crimson warrior threw down his arm to block and shifted his weight. In the instant before the axe connected, a katana appeared in Zero's hand and deflected the huge weapon slightly to one side. Matt grunted as the blond's sabre stabbed straight through his blue chestplate, instantly dropping his life points to zero.

A loud buzzer sounded as the elder Haolin collapsed. Zero's training weapons evaporated, as did his opponents'. In another moment the two blue warriors rose to their feet, rubbing the places where the crimson warrior's sabre had hit them.

Matt turned to Kai, his face heavily flushed. "I'm sorry, he was too fast."

Kai took his brother by the shoulders, frowning. "He was too strong for both of us. You did your best." He turned to Zero and sneered. "You honorless monster. Looks like we can't stop you anymore."

The blond young man smiled and bowed deeply to the brunet. "Thank you for the duel. I will always treat your sister with the greatest respect." He bowed to Matt as well, and extended a hand.

Watching the screens one floor up, Malon scowled. "I knew they were fighting over me. Doofuses."

Iris remained silent and watched the monitors. She began to smile.

Kai's expression went totally blank, and Matt's jaw dropped. For a long moment, the blue warriors regarded the crimson one without moving. Finally, Matt stepped forward and shook the offered hand.

"Good deal!" He grinned.

"Yeah," Kai seconded, and he shook with Zero as well. The elder warrior smiled faintly. "That is a good deal. We'll…well, we'll stay out of your way." He turned and headed for the exit at a slow walk. Matt grinned again and followed. Zero watched them go, then left the way he had come. His expression was totally placid for the next two minutes; then he walked out of the changing room to encounter Malon.

The raven haired young woman glared, her arms folded across her chest. "So. You won. I guess now you think you own me, right?"

Zero shook his head. "It wasn't about owning you. That fight needed to happen."

Malon's eyebrows quirked. "What are you saying?"

The crimson warrior shrugged. "We've had bad blood since they took me down on the rooftop. Now it's all worked out."

"You…you beast. You did it again. You used me to start a fight, just like you did in the hotel," the young woman muttered. Her fists clenched at her side, her head bent down, and her cheeks grew red.

Zero's forehead wrinkled, and he took the black haired beauty by the shoulders. "Wait. You misunderstand. The bad blood had to stop so you could be happy. If I let things go, you would have been in the middle. You're the reason Kai, Matt and I have to get along."

"Liar. You just wanted a fight," the young woman huffed. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away while tears trickled slowly down her cheekbones.

"No. I won't let you believe that. I want to be with you, Malon. I want you to be happy."

Zero pulled her in for a tight embrace, and young woman gasped. For a long moment she stood there, allowing him to hold her close.

Not too long, though. "All right. Fine. But could you take off that dang armor if you're going to hug me? This isn't comfortable at all." Malon squirmed.

_Strip! Strip! Strip! Strip! _Flash's voice echoed jarringly in Zero's head. The crimson warrior flinched and let his woman go.

"Nrg. No. Armor stays on. I need to go. To a place. For a time. Catch you later." He turned and walked away swiftly, beaming a transmission back to the mad programmer. _Flash, you are an honorless cretin._

_A speckled fish, too,_ the lunatic cackled.

Malon stared speechlessly at her man's retreating back, until he'd almost rounded the corner to the stairs. At the last second she found her voice. "Call me!"

00000

The Lady sneered down at her head programmer. His name was See-Sharp, but mostly she called him "scum." It was a popular title among her minions.

"Occuman's mansion, is it?"

"Yes, Lady. I—we crack his security, yes yes, and spy out the guest list. Lt. Picard, of the 71st Elites, he was there, yes yes," the hunchbacked programmer gibbered from his kneeling posture. He wore what would, on other people, have been expensive clothes. On him, they were like a glossy veneer over rotting wood.

"Well done. Now get out of my sight, scum."

"Yes yes, Lady is kind, yes yes," the man giggled, scuttling away like last year's yogurt. His boss waved a hand, and the door to the hallway slammed shut behind him. The programmer's sulfurous fragrance remained.

The Lady's nose wrinkled as she turned back to her teleconsole. "Ugh. Must all Sigma's chosen have glaring personal problems? There should be a law. There will be, once I've taken over this dump of a city."

She stroked her lips with one finger. "Warriors…all so very predictable. Iris Cainson, you're about to slip up for the first time if you truly intend to go to that ball. Now, to set events in motion."


	17. Chapter 16: Psychosis

**Chapter Sixteen: Psychosis**

Iris opened the front door to her mansion and smiled. "Lt. Picard, you're visiting off duty. What a delightful surprise."

The purple clad warrior smiled and bowed. "Far more delightful for me than for you, Miss Cainson. Is now a good time?"

The young woman curtsied in return, following the Western fashion of Old Earth. "An excellent time. I shall pour you a cup of tea."

Picard chuckled. "Then I'm in for a real treat."

Iris laughed lightly. "You are too kind. Flash is working in his basement with Cramer, but the rest of us have been in the game room. Why don't you join us?"

"As you wish, m'lady," the purple warrior answered wryly. He followed her down the hallway, glancing around at the elegant furnishings. The Cainsons had put relatively little in the way of ornamentation in this part of their mansion, squandering a great deal of space in a very obvious way.

Picard nodded. "I must say, Miss Cainson, that you seem to have mastered the art of interior decoration. Not many landowners in the city can get away with so flagrantly wasting so much square footage. Even less know how to do it properly."

"Oh, I can't take credit for any of that," Iris lied. "Flash's inventions earn us the money we need, and he personally worked out the design for the architecture and the décor. He's particularly proud of the Garden Room, on the second floor. I'll have to show you sometime."

By then they had reached the entrance to the Game Room, a chamber twenty by twenty-five feet that housed any number of obvious game systems and a lot more non-obvious ones. There were also a few paintings and things scattered sparingly about, as well as tables and chairs for board games. Zero and Officer Katarina Casselini sat at one such table in a corner of the room, playing chess.

The cat-eared police warrior pulled off a lazy salute and otherwise ignored her entering superior. She yowled softly as the crimson warrior captured another of her pieces.

"What? How did you do that? I don't even know why I play against you." She pushed one of her pawns forward.

Zero moved a rook and looked up at Iris and the visitor. "Hello, Picard. I feel like I just fought you."

"I heard. Those new recruits' Power Thief system is crazy. I don't know how they convinced Kurosaki and Smith to let them copy their abilities too." At a motion of his hostess' hand, the purple warrior sat.

"They didn't convince, they coerced." Katarina scowled at the chess board. "They copied mine, too. X Force, hah!"

Iris handed Picard a hot cup of tea and settled into a cushy chair. "So, Lieutenant, would you mind telling me about yourself? I've heard you lead quite a sensational life."

The man waved a hand dismissively. "Not half as sensational as yours is. You've quite captivated the eye of the public, Miss Cainson. Oh, and please, call me Jean-Pierre. Or John, if you like."

"Checkmate, Kat." Zero knocked over his opponent's queen with a knight, threatening her king. "We could play Go, if you want. Or Pente."

"Once in a thousand times two people get christened by the same system, and it has to be them. Them and that system. Yeah, let's play something else," the beige-blond woman yawned, displaying a pearly white pair of fangs among the rest of her lustrous teeth. They pulled another board game out of the drawer and set it up.

As they played, Iris and the lieutenant chatted busily about this and that. After about twenty minutes, Zero and Kat were 6-0 in Pente and Jean-Pierre Picard was ready to make his move.

"On the subject of parties, I have something I'd like to ask you, Iris."

The brunette cocked her head. "What would that be, Jean-Pierre?"

"I have an invitation to a formal ball at the mansion of Mr. Occuman, the president of Quartz Co., but I haven't yet found a lady to escort. I'm afraid it's short notice, but are you free this Friday night?" Jean-Pierre snapped his fingers, calling up a fragrant bouquet of roses, and presented it to the brunette.

Zero's hand twitched as he placed down his Pente stone. Kat's face lit up very slightly as she took her turn to place.

Iris looked at the lieutenant with wide eyes. "Why, I would dearly love to attend…but are you sure it's me you want to take? I mean, with your status and looks, surely you could do better than me."

"Hah! I strongly doubt any man could do better than you. Please come, Iris. The party could not be complete without you." He smiled broadly.

Zero's eyes stared unfocused at the board as he laid another stone. Kat promptly set down a piece and captured two of her opponent's, grinning toothily the whole time. "Ooh, what now, big man?"

Iris lowered her gaze as she called up a vase in which to put the roses. "I'll have to check my schedule. With the trial and everything running, I'm not sure I'll have time to find a proper ballroom dress. I'll call you." Her dark amber eyes alit on Picard's lavender ones. "Thank you so much for the invitation, Jean-Pierre."

He slid the roses smoothly into the vase and stood. "I'm honored you would consider it. I'll be waiting for your answer." The purple warrior bowed. Iris rose and personally saw him to the door.

Zero could hear them bidding each other lingering goodbyes.

Kat smirked as she captured a third pair of her opponent's stones. "I win. Where's that super strategy processor of yours now, Zero?"

His chin propped up on his fist, the young man stared into the Pente board another few seconds. "Well done. Well done."

Leaning forward, the beige blond tapped the side of Zero's helmet. "What's going on in there, big guy? Worried about something?"

He smoothed out his expression as Iris returned to the room. "No, no. A well deserved victory. Say, Iris. Want to play some cards?"

"I'm sorry, Zero, but I must ask you to excuse me. I have to prepare a few legal papers." She curtsied and ascended the stairs.

Kat stood, in all her voluptuous, lightly armored glory. "Looks like you're dumped, big guy. I'm a bodyguard, so I gotta guard her body. Play with ya later." She winked and ambled up after the brunette.

Zero mumbled something automatically in reply. His processors worked away as he stared sightlessly at the game board.

00000

Late that night, up in her office, Iris lifted her arms and held them out to the sides. "Could you put a few more ruffles along the shoulders, Flash?"

"Hurk. Yoink. Sputter." The lunatic muttered an aural shortcut path to the necessary code and traced designs in the air with his fingers. Silk ruffles sprouted from the dress. "What's a ball?"

"It's a sort of dance party. Do some kind of glittery gold stitching on the sleeves, it's all the rage these days." She inspected herself in the dressing room mirror as shimmering curls and loops embroidered themselves into the fabric. "A little more, then we can work on the skirts."

"Yeah, big poofy skirts like you wanted. Why haven't the other dresses needed poofy skirts?"

"Dancing dresses are a different style. They're not made to be sat in, just to look really, really good when you're moving around."

"Like a swan…"

Iris cocked her head. Unlike Flash, she had not attended the premiere programmers' academy of the Wind server and packed away more of its library of data than any human should be able to learn. "What's a swan?"

"Old Earth creature. They're all gone now, the fourth leg of the triangle. For(x0,x 176,x ) return 0;. There, poofy enough?"

She looked down. "Yes, thanks. Wow, they match the bodice really well. Don't triangles have three legs?"

"Now the back." Flash snapped his fingers, and the mirror switched polarity, allowing Iris to gaze directly at her own rear. "ifelse return 0;.

"Yes. That's why the swan is gone, murder by nonexistence. So cold, in the dark. I have to bring them back."

Iris' face fell. "Flash, don't look at the dark again. I need you here." She turned around and embraced her brother, causing the back of the dress to tear where his code had been actively building it. "Think about the fire again. The big fire, you remember, from the dreams?"

"Fire. Bigger than the world, so much bigger. Sun. Not just glowing day sky, bright sky, a sun, feeding warmth and light to life." His eyes grew wide, his hands trembling. "Sis, the sun is too hot. It's too hot, it'll kill us all, everyone."

Iris held on another moment. "All right, think about the other one, the silver one."

"Moon. Left behind, the strings all snapped, falling, rising, falling, an orphan in a houseful of aunts. It'll fall into the sun without its mommy." He looked down, his eyes staring into a space inches away and an entire reality apart.

"No, no, don't think about that. Think about the people that lived, think about the…the three legs that stayed in the triangle." She tilted his head up and held his amber eyes with hers. "Think about me and Zero. We're real, we're with you, there's no moon and no sun but there's us. Stay with us. Please."

"Not real, just patterns, sparks and patterns in the dark in the cold, no flesh and blood, no food or feces, we'll never be real like we all were, ------ you Sigma ------ you SIGMA!" Flash screamed and collapsed to the floor with his head between his hands, sobbing uncontrollably. "Mommy, Daddy, where are you? I'll bring you back! Where did you go? Where are you where are you WHY!"

Iris' hands trembled as she bent down to her older brother's shaking body. "I'm here, Flash, don't cry, Mom and Dad always loved you, we love you, I'm here and Zero and I'll take care of you, we'll always be safe and I won't ever die, I promise. I promise, Flash." Tears dripped from her eyes onto his huddled form.

The mad programmer shuddered in his fetal curl as his sister knelt and grasped him around the middle. A few seconds passed, and he relaxed limply to the floor of the office. Iris held back her tears as she listened to the gentle churning of her brother's core processor. When she took his hands, the brunet opened his eyes and looked up at her with a glazed expression.

"Your dress is all messed up…I've been working hard on that. Stop messing up my work, Sis."

She smiled at him through watery eyes. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Would you mind fixing it?"

"No problem." Flash allowed his sister to help him to his feet. "Hold still, this won't take long, I'll save the program for later and you'll be the belle of the ball. Heh heh. I'll bring Mommy and Daddy back, too. We were silly to bury them, I'm sure they were just sleeping. I'll bring them back."

A few minutes later Iris emerged from her office in a drab housedress and saw Zero standing outside the door. She stepped aside as Flash pranced into the hall and down the stairs. Somewhere in the shadows, Lt. Cramer followed.

Zero spoke quietly. "Worse than before."

Iris looked away, and then gently put her fingertips to the warrior's jaw for a more secure method of communication. _I wish I knew how to cure him. _

_He can't be cured. Your parents' deaths are only half the problem. He knows too much about Old Earth. He knows too much about the Great Death._ Zero's brows creased slightly and the corners of his mouth drooped. _We both do. _

_Zero… _Iris looked deep in his sapphire eyes. _You have to tell me more. He never talks to me about it, except when he breaks down like that. I need to know what will set him off so I can know what not to say. _

He shrugged. _The Great Death…we've all read the histories. We know that everyone died, and not many came back. We know that we left something behind. But the histories are like dreams. Some of them are barely coherent._

_Flash dreams about the Great Death, and his dreams are like memories. He sees what we lost. If he sits still, he can see it, so he never sits still. He said that to me, once. _

_I can't see it. But I feel it, I feel that Diamond Earth is just a mockery of Old Earth. Human's weren't meant to live this way. And I know Sigma is to blame. That's all. Sigma must die,_ he added by reflex.

Iris looked away and drew back her hand. "Many thanks, Zero. I must go to bed now, but can I count on you to escort me to court tomorrow?"

"Yes. Always." Moving suddenly, the young man did something he'd never done with Iris before. He put his hand on her cheek, instantly drawing her eyes to his. _Count on me for anything. Whatever happens, I will be there for you._ Then he bowed, turned, and strode off without giving her a chance to respond.

Her core processor oscillating madly in her chest, Iris put her fingertips to her face where Zero's black gloved hand had touched it. After standing motionless a moment, the young woman stepped back into her office and crossed to her bedroom door. As she raised a hand to the latch, someone padded up behind.

Iris turned, and the Officer Casselini's orange eyes flicked across her face. "I was going to come, but Zero told me to stay back and I…did. Miss Cainson, are you all right?"

The brunette waved a hand. "Nothing at all, nothing at all to worry about, Katarina," she said lightly, wiping at the tearstains with her sleeve.

Kat scratched her head and grinned lopsidedly. "Sure. Okay, Miss."

Iris thanked her for her concern and summoned her journal as she sat down. After jotting in a few lines the young woman vanished the diary again, dimmed the lights, and lay down in her bed.

In the private blackness Iris once again laid her hand on her cheek, and smiled.

00000

Zero retreated to the Garden Room, down on the second floor. The ceiling here was as black as the night sky outside; only the dimmest light splashed in from the hallway. Momentarily, the crimson warrior's eyes adjusted to the dim, and he saw the rainbow of orchids, the yellow-white blossoms of the gardenia, the lush greens of the tropical ferns, and all the other plants as if by twilight.

He sighed in the darkness at the sweet, buttery fragrance of the gardenia blossoms. Celestia had always worn the scent of gardenias.

Zero took off his helmet and tossed it into a hedge. Shaking out his yellow mane, the young man pulled his TC from its holster and pushed a few of the keys.

The teleconsole bore Flash's signature mark, a beetle encased in amber. He'd retained the same model since college, despite the programmer's repeated offers to upgrade it or make him a new one. Scratches and dents covered every inch of its surface, but the stubby little device still worked as well as it had the day Zero's lunatic friend had first designed it. Never, in seven years, had the TC let in so much as one spamvertisement. Except for the noodle incident, it hadn't garbled a single letter, either.

"Opening contacts list. Who would you like to speak to today, Zero?"

Also, for some reason Flash had programmed the device to speak in his sister's alto voice.

"Text message to Malon Haolin."

"As you wish. I'm listening." On cue, Malon's picture came up on the monitor in a "New Message" window. The young man stared at her iridescent black hair and steely grey eyes; he couldn't remember updating the image from the blue-haired one he'd been using for the past few years. Another of Flash's automatic subroutines.

Zero sat down with his back to an orange, hard, fleshy growth with waxy skin. Flash had told him it was a pumpkin, and that they nearly never grew four feet high. The blond had had no response to the statement.

He started to type. Zero hunted with furrowed brows for each individual key, index fingers pecking the buttons. New characters appeared on the screen at a rate of about one every three seconds. Eventually he finished the message.

"_Maln. Talk whn redy…nd talk. Tnit." _

Zero glared at the result and clicked a key. Iris' voice laughed at him.

"So many spelling mistakes. I'll fix them for you, Zero, but when will you learn?"

"Darn you, Flash." Zero grimaced and clicked the "send" button.

He sat against the pumpkin, breathing the cool, perfume-laden air. Within a couple of minutes Iris' voice alerted him to an incoming call, and the warrior clicked the "answer" button.

A live video/audio feed filled the little screen, and Malon smiled out of the monitor. From what her boyfriend could see, she sported a tank top and a leather jacket and kept her hair in a short black ponytail. Beyond the glow cast on the young woman by her TC the image was dark as night, but the crimson warrior could spot some trees, a statue, and other park things in the background.

Then Malon focused her smile on him, and the background faded into the background. "Hey Zero, I just got out of rehearsals. What did you want to talk about?"

He smiled in return. "I don't know. What are you rehearsing for?"

"Oh, that." She stuck out her tongue. "I'm the new effects specialist for _Pod People: Chronicles_, the doomed miniseries. I can't believe I signed on for this pile of shiz."

He blinked. "I thought you wanted to be an actress. You went to theater school for a long time. You used to send me video files of the performances."

"I do want to act. I know how to act. The only problem is, they won't let me! Those old farts at the studio think my illusion powers are meant to be used for stage fog and stuff like that. I can't believe they're stunting my creativity like this!"

Zero shrugged. The young woman continued her monologue, waving one finger in the air. "Once I make a name for myself in this business, I'm going to find a studio that will let me show off my true skill! With my talents, I can be any woman a plot could need. I mean, look at this. Look."

Malon's petite face and figure shifted appearance a dozen times in rapid succession, each costume more stunning than the last. Zero stared, his lips slightly parted. She halted as a magnificently proportioned fifteen-year-old girl with long, deep blue hair, dressed in a blue-and-white sailor uniform. Every detail was perfect, right down to the loose red bow at the waist and the smiling, azure eyes.

Seeing her boyfriend's expression, the illusionist playing the schoolgirl giggled. "Feeling a little warm, Zero? I didn't know you liked your honeys this young."

"Sngh. Hkck. Naa."

"Well, I'm glad someone appreciates me. Hey, I've been thinking. How did you ever see through my disguise, back when I was pretending to be that damsel in distress Yuki?"

Zero blinked and dragged his eyes up to her face. "When we kissed. I could feel the difference between the image and the reality."

"Hah! You're a terrible liar. I bet your buddy Flash found out somehow, and he told you." Malon tilted up her chin and grinned.

He shook his head. "No, really. The bone structure I felt when I kissed you was slightly different from what I had seen. I knew then that it had to be illusion."

She cocked an eyebrow. "All right, so you could tell it was a disguise…still, even if you knew that, how did you know that Yuki was really me, and not some other girl?"

Zero shrugged. "I don't know many illusionists."

"What, you're not going to say you knew me by taste or something? Laaaaame."

"How could I have known your taste? We'd never kissed before."

Malon glanced away, her smile fading. "Yeah, I know. Why not, Zero?"

Her boyfriend blinked, his eyebrows quirking. "Why? You wanted to?"

"Yes! How could you not tell! I sent you letters all the time, I gave you presents on your birthdays, I tried to talk to you when you got back…how could you not get the message?" She shook her TC, causing her own image on the blond's teleconsole to vibrate. He looked away.

"I don't know. I don't know why my programming leaves such a blind spot there," the crimson warrior replied, rubbing his head with the heel of his hand.

Malon stuck her tongue out at him again. "Men. You're all insensitive boors."

Zero's forehead wrinkled. "What's a boor?"

"It's what you are. Say, my brothers don't expect me back at the apartment for another half an hour. What are you doing right now?"

"I shouldn't leave the house. There aren't enough warriors here without me. Iris needs my protection."

Malon sighed, the corners of her mouth twitching down. "You're always puppyguarding that woman. No one will notice if you take off for a little while."

"I can't take that chance. Another time?"

"Hah. You mean a time when you're not busy trying to impress Iris with your tough guy routine?"

Zero touched a black-gloved finger to the screen as if trying to caress his girlfriend's illusion-enhanced face. "It's not like that at all, Malon."

"You live in her house. I've seen how you look at her. What am I supposed to think, Zero?"

"Please believe me. I want to see you. You, Malon. Please?"

She glanced away. "My schedule's tight this week. Friday?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, no. Saturday?"

Her eyebrows quirked a moment, but the young woman didn't ask about Friday. She shrugged. "Sure."

The blond smiled. "Glad to hear it. I'll find something for us to do together."

Malon rolled her eyes, but her lips curled upwards in a smirk. With a flick of her wrist, she deactivated the hot schoolgirl costume and reassumed her normal appearance. Her eyes, gunmetal grey once more, glittered in the light of her teleconsole. "All right. Talk to you later, boyfriend."

He smirked her one better. "You too, Lon-Lon."

Wrinkling her nose at him, the black-haired beauty disconnected. Zero sat there, holding the teleconsole, while wind blew artificially through the Garden Room. His unbound hair fluttering around his face, he listened to the leaves and blossoms rustling in the dark.

The crimson warrior had seen that statue behind Malon sometime recently. It was only a few miles away, in Eerie Park. He could be there, alone with his hot girlfriend, in minutes. He could surprise her. She might even do the schoolgirl illusion for him again…

Meanwhile, the Cainson domain was empty of enemy intruders, as it had been all that night, the night before, and the night before that…as it probably would be, for as long as Flash's software guarded the house. Probably.

Zero shook his head. Donning his helmet once more, the crimson warrior walked up the stairs to his chambers, which happened to be across the hall from Iris'. Shuffling through a small library of data chips, he plucked out the one titled "Zero's 17th B-Day present.mkv" and stuck it in his teleconsole.

He settled into a guard position in front of Iris' door and played the video file with the sound turned down to the minimum. The warrior's ears could still pick up the words and music, but they wouldn't drown out the sounds made, for example, by someone breaking and entering into the house.

"Macbeth, as preformed by the Zephyr University College of Drama and Entertainment. Starring: Archibald Chaon as Macbeth, Jeri Mungoton as…"

He zipped forward a bit. "…Light "87 Weapons" Wingers as Malcolm, Malon Haolin as the Witches…"

Zero chuckled and watched the play late into the night.


	18. Chapter 17: Popularity

**Chapter Seventeen: Popularity**

It was Friday of the same week. Malon stood to one side of a set that, in a very poor light, might pass as a swamp. Only her manager, a stocky man about forty-something, and herself stood still as the rest of the cast and crew packed up and left.

The black-haired beauty's brows creased. "Who's going where with who again?"

Her manager shrugged. "It's all over the news. Miss Cainson is going to the ball at Occuman's, escorted by a lieutenant of the Elites. The news media is getting all geared up to shoot them as couple of the year. Hey, are you saying that Doppler guy didn't tell you?"

Malon shook her head, biting her lip. "This must be why…hmph. Only one way to know for sure." She swept off into the night, reaching into her pocket for the keys to her car.

Her manager scratched his head and retreated to his trailer. Once he'd locked the door, the man opened his TC and made a call.

"Is it done?" a musical soprano voice asked from the other end of the line.

"Yes, Lady. It is an honor to serve Sigma, under you. But…Lady, why did you want me to tell her this?"

"Don't question my methods, scum."

00000

Pictures of Stormy Hill's rich and famous scrolled slowly across the monitor. Each individual's photo was tagged with a file describing both their public and hidden associations with each other and with the Cult of Sigma. Iris scrutinized them all for the fifth time, her eyes devouring the data she'd taken so much time and expense to amass.

At the ring of the doorbell, Iris' gaze left the pictures splayed across her teleconsole's screen and she touched a button on the keyboard. Lt. Picard's voice and image came through the house video intercom from the front door to her TC.

"I'm here to whisk you away, m'lady," he intoned dryly.

She smiled widely, adjusting her braided hair a bit. "I'll be down in a moment. Zero will see you in."

Two floors below, the crimson warrior operated the door latch and let the off-duty police warrior inside. Zero's eyes flicked over the jeweled sheaths for his weapons, the carefully styled scale mail armor, and the royal blue cape. They stopped on Picard's expression, which resembled that of a bear that has seen the bees and nevertheless ambles happily up to the hive.

"Good to see you again, Doppler," the lieutenant, about ten years his senior, greeted the young man.

"Yes. Good evening," Zero intoned evenly. Bees, in fact, could have displayed more human emotion. "Right this way."

The two warriors sat in silence in the parlor. Zero retained a poker face while Picard smiled away.

Several minutes passed.

The lieutenant began to fidget.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat. "Weather's getting colder."

"Yes," the crimson warrior said. The word dropped like a bare, leaden slab.

Picard sat back, hands on knees, and did not venture to speak again until steps sounded from the staircase. The bear sprang to his feet as the honey came into view.

"Splendid, simply splendid," he beamed. "I've never seen a finer ballroom dress."

The bees, who had also stood at Iris' entrance, stared unabashed. "I have never seen you so beautiful."

The young woman smiled. "Oh, you are both such wonderful liars," she lied. "How will I ever get an honest opinion around you two?"

Flash's voice sounded from the wall. "Snrgf. 'Mstuck."

Three heads turned reflexively as, with a popping noise, the mad programmer shot out of the solid wall and landed on the floor in a heap. Zero went and helped him to his feet.

"Friggin' last time I try to teleport in this friggin' house," Flash muttered, lying as flagrantly as his sister. "Aargh. My head tastes like insulation."

Zero blinked and turned back to Iris and the lieutenant, who were smiling and talking as if he and Flash were no longer present.

"You're too kind, Jean-Pierre," the young woman said as he guided her to the door. She glanced back at her brother and champion. "I'll be home late tonight, so please don't worry about me."

"Beam me a message if there's trouble," Zero told her.

"Don't walk through ceilings, they're murder on the sinuses," Flash called out.

With that, they watched the couple leave. Zero folded his arms as the front door closed behind them.

"He's ten years older than her," he buzzed as the bear made off with his honey.

"I have floorplans of the mansion they're going to." The mad programmer tapped his fingers together in a nervous blur.

"Good thinking, Flash. Pack up for a stakeout."

00000

Iris swept into the great, heavily decorated ballroom like a swan among lesser fowls, leaving a thick knot of telejournalists outside. She held closely to her escort Jean-Pierre's elbow, her eyes roaming brightly over the other couples dancing in slow, complex patterns around the chamber. Classical waltzing music filled the air, care of the live musicians positioned on a dais at one side of the room.

Picard led his smiling, graceful young lady friend to the host of the event, who stood with his current trophy wife by the refreshment table. The police warrior made the introductions and the two couples began what was Iris' first social skirmish of the evening.

"Ah, Picard, so this is the young woman that has the city all in a twitter. Iris Cainson, I've heard so much about you. So nice to make your lovely acquaintance," the bald old host grinned toothily. Despite the complete lack of food or actual digestive processes in the people of Diamond Earth, and probably despite the best medical hacking money could buy, the billionaire was embarrassingly fat.

His wife, dressed in the best of the current style, stood a couple of feet away. "Yes, everyone's talking about you," she said with a poorly concealed yawn. Her gaze wandered away from her husband and the other couple, though for a moment it lingered on Picard.

"Oh, who would ever talk about silly little me," said Iris. "There are so many more interesting things happening around here, Mr. Occuman. I heard your company's takeover of Koizumi Co. went extremely well. No one quite knows why Mr. Suresh sold so much of his stock so fast. Oh, but I tell a lie. After all, we can't be sure no one knows, can we?" The young woman smiled cherubically, her dark amber eyes glinting in the cream colored light from the chandeliers.

The fat old man paled, his grin freezing into a rictus of fear. His wife merely stared into the distance, and Occuman himself couldn't seem to find words, so Iris found some more for him.

"I'm glad to be able to meet such a veteran of the business world as yourself, sir. A man who knows what he can really bank on, which way the wind is blowing, and what to make of a new situation. I'm sure I could learn so much from you about deals and information and the give and take that keeps society running…smoothly." She paused to turn down a cup of punch from Picard, who had quietly snagged it from the refreshment table.

Iris continued. "After all the terrible things about our city's government that we've been hearing about on the news, I'd like to know that people like you are toiling away to keep things working, Mr. Occuman. Now, I really must thank you for your warm welcome and be off, sir. I'm afraid my dance card is terribly packed tonight."

The old man nodded vigorously, his face visibly regaining its color. "Of course, of course. Please, talk to me any time you need to, I'd love to help you in any way I can."

Jean-Pierre, as Iris' escort, guided her out onto the dance floor as the next number began. "The men don't think he knows anything useful about the Cult," the police warrior muttered to her.

She giggled and leaned up against him to whisper in his ear. "Jean-Pierre, whatever makes you think there's anything to know? A young lady like me simply needs to have a few favors to call in. Of course, if he does know something it'll all come out soon enough," she added with a girlish smile.

The lieutenant laughed and assumed the starting pose for the tango music the band had begun to play. Iris did likewise, and they stepped and whirled in the quick, staccato way of that style of dance.

Jean-Pierre never missed a single step; his every movement spoke of superb coordination and control. It was as if the music danced to him, instead of the other way around.

"You're a truly marvelous lead, sir," Iris told her partner. She retreated with quick, sharp steps while he advanced to the same tempo.

As if in reply, Jean-Pierre caught the brunette and dipped her backwards over his arm, then swung her upright again. He moved her like the wind playing with a swallow, or the sea with a dolphin: vigorous and strong, yet at the same time gentle and smooth. It took the young woman's breath away.

"It's easy with a pleasure like you to dance with, m'lady," he drawled. "A woman with whom I can see eye to eye, in more ways than one."

She blushed. "Many thanks. It's not every man that likes a tall—"

"Lady of stature," Picard interrupted. "Not every man can appreciate the delicate nature of a rose, either, but that makes the rose no less beautiful."

"Jean-Pierre, you're such a poetic warrior. Why did you ever join such a rough and ready group as the 71st Elites?" Iris' eyes held onto her escort's, swaying towards him while he stepped back, their elegant footwear tapping on the floor in time with the music.

He halted on the ball of one foot and whirled the brunette, his face becoming more solemn. "No rose is complete without thorns, m'lady. Cpt. Nagasaki didn't just train me when I dropped out of college. He turned my life around. And as it turns out, even a tough, thorny bush like the Elites can be made beautiful with the addition of a blossom like me."

00000

"…blossom like me."

Picard's voice came through Flash's TC clear as day. The mad programmer roared with laughter.

"What a femmy! That man is one cherry short of a pair!"

Zero's brows creased. "Yes, cherry. But does Iris like that?"

"Hah! My sister's no fool! She knows femmies are not good."

"Hmm." The crimson warrior stared at the couple on the monitor until the tango came to a close. Before long Iris had found her next dance partner, and after that the next, and the next, ad nauseum.

Zero watched as the young woman maneuvered her way demurely through the party. As she spoke, some plutocrats threw back their shoulders and postured for her like peacocks; others, mostly men but in one case a woman, let their eyes sweep over her form longer than was polite or even decent; still more, men and women alike, paled and clutched at their drinks in her wake. Plenty of guests displayed a mixture of two or three of these behaviors, or all of them serially. Nearly two hours passed while the crimson warrior gazed at the scene, with Iris always at the focal point.

Only a few minutes in, however, Flash wandered off to other matters. The mad programmer tinkered with the peripherals of the cloaking device, though he left its main workings undisturbed. "I love a boat, I love a boat, and I love a boat that flies…" he chanted in a sing-song, airy way. His airship, the _Incorrigible_, hummed slightly around him.

Before their ill-fated encounter with Zero, Flash, and Iris, Hana and his river bandits had schlepped around the Wind server's rivers and lakes in this very boat, using its stealth capabilities to remain hidden from sight and hearing until they wished to strike. After their resounding defeat at his and the blond warrior's hands, Flash had compressed the boat's programs and data into a few smallish boxes and put them in the back of his truck, right by the previous owners' heads. The following weeks at the Cainson residence had given the hacker plenty of time to decompress the complex programs and affect his own unique brand of alterations. He'd spent a roughly equal amount of time installing the antigravity module as he had sculpting the bronze, tentacled mermaid figurehead on the prow.

Best of all, no one outside of Flash, Iris, and Zero even knew the _Incorrigible_ (its crazed new owner's choice of name) had not been destroyed when the three youths had ambushed its murderous owners. Not even Lt. Cramer, the mad programmer's own bodyguard, had been allowed to discover the craft. Flash called it his "ace in the hiddly-hole"…when he wasn't calling it his lover.

At the present moment, the airship hung above Mr. Occuman's Gothic castle-mansion like a repugnant, malformed duck floating on top of a pond. With the addition of such features as the monstrous figurehead, the jet engines, and the spoilers, Flash had turned the _Incorrigible's _sleek form into something beyond clumsy, beyond grotesque. Without the stealth device, it would have stuck out like a man holding a billboard that said, in flashing orange and red letters: _"I'M A HIDEOUS ABOMINATION. KILL ME NOW, PLEASE!" _

Inside the airship, Flash moved on from the cloaking module to a set of screens in another part of the craft. Three-dimensional, real-time bitmaps displayed people and other moving objects as tiny blips of various colors and sizes, and showed buildings as translucent grids the hacker could scan to find various threats or targets. Glancing at the screens, the brunet took out a number of tools and practiced his typical brand of jiggery-pokery on the system as it ran. The monitors blipped on and off and reworked their entire style of display as Flash muttered and prodded, humming repetitive snatches of tune to himself.

Finally, after watching Iris for an hour and forty-five minutes, Zero's forehead wrinkled and he stood. "Flash, something's wrong. She's left the dance floor and she's headed to the hidden stairs. Switch the video feed to follow her."

"Urk." The programmer looked up from a pile of wires and other, less identifiable paraphernalia. "You got it, Big Red." He left the early warning system screens blank to alter his remote video feed hack.

The monitor flickered to show an image of Iris ascending a steep flight of steps, up several stories to the very top of the building. Zero turned from the screen and opened a trapdoor in the bottom of the stealth boat.

"Flash, keep the airship hidden and kill the rooftop video feeders. I'm going to make sure Iris is all right." He tossed a long, loosely coiled grey tether out the hatch, tested the line's connection to the ship, and slipped out of the airship and down the line like a drop of blood from a wound. Flash flinched at the loud crunch made when the warrior landed on one of Occuman's decorational rooftop gargoyles five stories down. Then the brunet set the tether to reel itself back up to the ship, shut the trapdoor, and watched the unfolding drama on his screens.

Zero rolled to his feet, away from the remains of the gargoyle, and strode towards a particular patch of the gently sloped stone roof. Right on cue, Iris opened a hidden door in the deceptively thin stone and ascended from the dim of the staircase to the dark of the night. Her white, gold and blue themed ballroom gown shone like a heavenly mantle in the crimson warrior's sensitive night vision. He appeared at her side with a whisper of rushing air.

"What are you doing? It's dangerous for you to be up here alone."

She smiled and turned towards him. "I'm sorry to have worried you, Zero, but I was never in any danger. I knew you'd be here, and I just had to break away for a moment to see you. I knew you'd be here," she repeated softly. "All this time, you've been here for me, and I was too busy playing political games to see it."

Zero's processors raced. "What are you saying?"

"Lt. Picard is a fine soldier and a strong political ally. But he could never take your place, Zero, the place I hold for you here—" she tapped her head, her virtual drive, the center of memory, "—and here." Iris clasped her hands over her chest, her emotional subprocessor, her heart. Her dark amber eyes shone up at the young man. "The place I've held for you for a long time."

The crimson warrior choked. "What?"

Iris' faint smile broke and fell like a bird shot from the sky. She laughed, but instead of the melodious ring of silversteel bells the sound came out like the discordant twang of a rent copper pipe. "I'm such a fool to blurt everything out like this. Can you forgive me for having feelings you can't return?" Her gaze remained locked on his sapphire eyes, her hands falling open to her sides.

Zero shook his head violently, whipping his blond ponytail to and fro. The corners of his mouth turned down. "Don't apologize. There's nothing to forgive." _Flash, give us a barrier._

_Righty-o, _the programmer's voice returned.

Iris' eyes widened and she gasped as a familiar grey sphere swallowed her and Zero, blocking out all potential threats and dimming the panorama of glimmering city lights. The sounds of traffic in the streets, laughter drifting up from the mansion, telejournalists camping by the front gate far below, and all the other little noises disappeared, leaving only the sounds of their breathing. The young man's scarlet plate mail vanished, leaving only the tough but supple bodysuit as he took her in his arms.

"I'm sorry," Zero whispered in her ear. "I feel as you do. I truly do. But I've already promised myself to another. Please, please don't hate me for this."

Iris shivered as the combination of his scent and hers filled the enclosed air like whiskey blended with wine. "No, I'm the one at fault. I shouldn't have put you in this position. I'll always treasure your friendship, even if I can't have your love." After a long moment's silent embrace, she broke away. "I have to get back down there before they realize where I've gone."

Zero ran a hand through his hair, and his armor began to materialize onto him once more. Wordlessly, he tapped on the curving inner wall of the sphere with the hilt of his saber. Flash, watching him do so, deactivated the barrier program. His sister and her champion emerged onto the rooftop once more.

"Good luck. I'll be ready when you need me." Zero bowed deeply to her.

Iris curtsied more deeply still, forcing a smile. "You're very generous. Many thanks, Zero." She stood by while he reopened the secret door in the roof for her, then descended carefully down into the building. After closing the door behind her, Zero stood, drew his sabre, and donned his shield.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the crimson warrior asked the quiet rooftop.

He pivoted as one of the gargoyles rose up and reassumed its true appearance.

"After what you've done to me, I don't even know anymore," Malon whispered.


	19. Chapter 18: Nightmare

Author's note: This is my favorite chapter. Ever.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen: Nightmare**

"Who are you and what do you want?" Zero asked the quiet rooftop.

He pivoted as one of the gargoyles rose up and reassumed its true appearance.

"After what you've done to me, I don't even know anymore," Malon whispered.

00000

Iris arrived on the ballroom floor just in time to fill the next slot on her card. She glanced at the name written in for this particular dance, a classical waltz, but the signature was totally illegible. The brunette sighed and stood to one side of the dance floor, arms folded loosely across her stomach. She turned her head and tilted her chin to a regal angle, appearing to admire an oil painting of Stormy Hill's founders that adorned one of the walls.

A throat cleared quietly behind her, and the young woman looked around into the wrinkled visage of Elder Programmer Gau, the system administrator for Windy Fountains.

The stoop shouldered, silver haired old man wore his ceremonial robes and cloak. They were covered in complex patterns and designs, but the garments hung on him unevenly. While the other partygoers appeared, by and large, to have sprung fully formed from fashion stores or political ads, Gau looked more like a homeless man who had found nice clothes in a dumpster somewhere. Craggy wrinkles lined his saggy old visage like ridges and crevices on an ancient, mistreated mountainside. He even had a snowy white top, although the foothills looked much the worse for wear.

For a fraction of a second, the young woman's eyes widened and she gaped at him. However, she quickly turned the expression into a broad smile.

"Elder Gau, what an unexpected pleasure to meet you here, so far from our hometown! Am I to have the pleasure of dancing with you next?"

"No, child." He gazed up at her, his glacier blue eyes narrow. "Yes, we are scheduled to do so, but I am only an old man who could not dance even in his prime. Please, Miss Cainson, come aside. We must talk."

00000

Zero's sabre and shield dropped from nerveless hands to clatter to the stone roof of Occuman's mansion. "What do you mean?"

"I don't want you. You're not the man I loved. Now I don't think he ever existed." Malon's head drooped and her shoulders slumped. "I remember how you were before your christening. You weren't strong, or smart, or sure, or even very cute, frankly. But you were always there, you were real and kind and you talked to me like you cared what I thought. I liked you, and you liked me, I know you did."

00000

"As you know, Miss Cainson, we of the Wind server do not give our children proper names when they are born. Instead, they are nicknamed based on their parents' whim and pleasure, and keep those nicknames until the earliest signs of puberty begin to manifest themselves. At that time, the unnamed child is taken to a tower, a hill, or some other high place where a set of Rods has been installed. As the parents or guardians watch, the child takes hold of the Rods and waits for lightning to strike." Gau's eyes searched Iris' visage, but she kept a blank smile pinned firmly to her face. He continued.

"As you know, the 'lightning' is not mere electricity, though it takes that appearance. It is conducted through the Rods and passes through the child, forcibly downloading one or more beneficial system updates from the clouds into his or her virtual drive. Scholars speculate that the clouds may be an entity, or entities that store massive amounts of data and generate these updates as a gift to our people. Others think that the updates may be hangovers of creatures and programs from Old Earth. We know so very little about the nature of Diamond Earth, and even less about the world before…

"In any case, sometimes the updates are more drastic than others. I seem to recall that yours were not very extensive, as they only amplified your natural traits and gave you some extra sensibilities. As a result, your personality changed relatively little during your christening. Zero, previously nicknamed Greenie, lived a different story."

00000

Malon clenched her fists. "That blasted christening. I've waited seven years for you to remember some part of what you were. All this time, I've been waiting for Greenie when you'd already erased him and taken his place." She looked up at him.

"I don't know what pit you crawled out of, Zero, but you killed my best friend and I can't ever forgive you for that. I don't care anymore what kind of games you've been playing with me or Iris or whatever other girls you've been with behind my back. Stay out of my life."

She whirled away from him, her short ponytail whipping out behind her like a flag. Zero took a step towards her, his face pale. "Malon, it's not like that! I'm not with Iris! I want to be with you!"

"I don't want you. I want Greenie." She walked away without looking back, her hair shifting from iridescent black to its original sky blue.

"No…no! Don't leave me, please! You said you wouldn't leave me!" the crimson warrior staggered forwards and laid a hand on her arm. Malon spun, glaring at him with tear-filled hazel eyes.

"Don't touch me," she spat.

Zero let her go and fell to his knees, shaking. "Malon, please, let me speak. I need you to listen. Please."

"NO! You just don't get it! I hate you! Greenie's gone and I hate you!" She whirled away and ran down the sloping rooftop, towards the grappling hook she'd used to climb up the wall.

"Greenie isn't gone! He's part of me, just like you! Don't leave me! Malon!" Zero watched, paralyzed, as the young woman vanished over the edge of the building.

Once she was out of sight, the crimson warrior's limbs turned to jelly and he collapsed to the stone. Flash's voice gibbered unheeded in his head as the young man's processors fell into endless loops. The world dimmed. Zero's eyes closed, slowly.

Then they opened again, the pupils growing like black cancers across the irises and whites. His lips framed one word.

"Maverick."

Zero's sabre and shield slid and skipped as if magnetized across the mottled grey roof into his hands, and he stood—

00000

"When the lightning struck the Rods for Greenie that night, it downloaded an entire suite of systems into him, completely rewriting the boy's nature. He turned from an unfocused, rather simple lad into a warrior child with insane levels of physical power and general combat ability. He inherited a new set of motives and a mission that he will follow, one way or another, until he dies. But none of that is new to you."

"Elder Gau, I hate to rush you, but please tell me what you're leading up to. I'm going to have to go dance with the CFO of Lucascorp once this waltz is done playing." Iris tapped her foot.

"Very well. What I tell you next is a secret held until now by myself, Zero Doppler's missing parents, and Zero himself. On the night of his christening, I performed the standard, ritual inspection of the boy's virtual drive to see if his updates had come with any viruses or malicious software that could threaten him or those around him. I perform the same ritual with every child in Windy Fountains at this time in his or her life, though only very rarely do I come across any problems.

"When I hacked into Zero's mind, his mind hacked me back without his conscious control. Caught off guard, I nearly died fighting the intrusion into my own virtual drive. I broke contact and did not attempt to search him again.

"Miss Cainson, I should have told you all of this in the moment you chose to ally yourself with this man, and I apologize for my slowness in doing so. Since you have accepted Zero as your champion, you need to know that he may carry dangers hidden within him capable of destroying him or those around him. As much as you may want to trust him, you need to watch him, Miss Cainson."

00000

A woman's scream split the night, ending in a gurgle.

Zero, several dozen feet from the sound, flinched and his eyeballs regained their normal look. Swifter than thought, the young man sprang in the direction of the bone-chilling noise. Over the edge of the building he leapt, His face pale and his sapphire eyes narrowed to slits.

In that instant, as the warrior's feet left the stone and he began to fall, a column of flames burst from the ground two stories below and roared straight up at him. Zero twisted in mid-air but the fire caught him anyway, smacking into his body like a massive white-hot fist and turning several pieces of scarlet plate mail into slag.

He tumbled end over end to smash heavily onto a steeply sloping section of roof. His armor clanking loudly on the stone, the crimson warrior rolled over the edge and dropped limply to the manicured lawn below.

00000

Flash watched his TC with mouth gaping wide as, on the screen's live video feed, the crimson warrior's weapon and shield skittered across the rooftop into his hands. A noise like cloth on cloth drew his attention from the screen, and the brunet's eyes widened at the sight of a grey, masked figure slipping in through the solid wall of the airship. He squealed like a schoolgirl and threw a tiny net from his belt at the ghost man.

The net blipped in mid-air from three inches in diameter to several feet wide and glowed as it hurtled towards the creature. For a moment, the ghost man faded from sight and the web passed straight through him. As he regained solidity the ghastly creature rushed in towards the mad programmer, one hand holding a long, curved knife.

Flash screamed again and threw up his arms. A second ghost man caught and held him from behind while the hands of a third reached through the floor of the airship and grasped his feet. The first grey figure swept in, knife leading.

At the last moment the mad programmer disappeared and reappeared in the other room of the airship. As he beamed a hurried message over the teleconsole network, the ghost men came at him again, all three wielding very sharp knives.

Flash blinked in and out of places all over the ship, screaming, gibbering, and pulling weapons from his belt and cargo pants to fight the grey attackers. Icy wind blew through their bodies, death's heads glared in their faces, and crystals shot light rays into their heads, all to no effect. As the craft rocked and reeled with the effects of the lunatic hacker's arsenal, the ghost men silently and relentlessly hounded their frail, amber-eyed target across the ship.

00000

Zero's armor hardened quickly as it cooled. He deactivated the red and white plate mail, forcing it to vanish it before it could stiffen in such a way as to prevent movement. The kite shield, which he'd successfully angled to protect his face, head, and part of his body, remained unharmed, but the sabre was lost somewhere in the grass and probably melted besides.

More to the point, his black bodysuit had burned right through all over his right leg, back, and right arm, allowing the column of flames to scorch his muscles into useless, charred lumps of meat. Rivers of agony coursed through his body as the appropriate subprocessor assessed the damage and began to attempt repairs. Zero gritted his teeth and slipped his left hand out of the shield towards his hair, the command key to rebooting his armor.

A rosy pink stiletto heel pinned his wrist to the ground before the crimson warrior could finish the motion. Turning his head, the young man looked up into the face of a woman who'd been a teenage girl when he saw her last.

Celestia Kyuubit sniffed the air, smiling like a succubus at the sickly smell of roasted flesh. "Hi there, Zero. Remember me?"

Zero's eyes grew wide, but he gasped out a response in record time. "Celestia. Celes. I loved you. I still love you." _Flash, where are you? Help!_

00000

Teleporting randomly from place to place within the airship, the mad programmer stayed one step ahead of the ghost men, but only just. They took up zone defense, one for each of the boat's two little rooms and one for the top deck.

As he blinked into being on the prow Flash raised another element of his vast array of tools, a thick, stubby baton with veins running down its length and a row of buttons on one end. He pointed it at the grey figure already rushing towards him, tapping the buttons in ridiculously quick successions of patterns. The ghost man flinched, his knife clattering to the deck as one arm went limp. Crowing like a cock at dawn, the crazed hacker shouted a string of words too fast and long to even be comprehensible.

"DynamicphasereentrybrowsermaskTHATyousonofa—" he stopped in mid-sentence as the knife rose from the floor and shot up at his face under its own power.

Recoiling openmouthed from the hurtling blade, Flash threw his arm up to block and traded instant death for a deep slash across the palm of his left hand. As he teleported automatically to the aft deck, the hacker gawked at the crippled appendage with a face as grey as his enemies'.

An additional knife reached up through the deck, powered from below by another of the trio of ghastly creatures. Flash blinked out of existence again as the blade sliced across a pocket low on his pant leg, and randomized data from the brunet's second wound splattered across the rising ghost man's mask.

00000

Celestia's face twisted into a grimace. "LIAR!" She stomped her heel down on Zero's throat, crushing his voice box and forcibly jerking his chin forwards. "You never loved me! You used me! You tortured me! Now I'll torture you!"

The foxy warrior traced a small circle in the air, and a thin, white-hot column of flame shot down towards the helpless young man. Shieldless, he threw up his empty left hand to block. The fire instantly reduced the appendage to a blackened, grotesque piece of char.

After a short laugh at Zero's strangled scream, Celestia snapped her fingers. A man covered in a thick, gnarled bodysuit with a texture like oak appeared from the dark. Glowing data oozed from the limp form carried under his arm. Her arms, legs, and sky blue hair swung freely with the leafy warrior's heavy steps.

"Oh, what do we have here?" Celestia grinned. "Poor Malon Haolin. She should've stayed away from you in the first place. Now she'll die because you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself to protect her. Hold her up higher, Woodman; Zero wants to see those big gaping holes you put in her."

The warrior did as he was told. His voice came out in a creaking groan, a like a gnarled old tree pushed in the wind.

"Yes, Lady."

00000

Flash blinked into reality in the sensor room already waving the baton, and paralyzed one of his enemies before it could react. The ghost man positioned in the other room shot through the doorway towards him, zigging and zagging in an effort to avoid the baton's affects. It failed, its body tumbling to the floor in a heap, but its knife and the knife of its twin swooped up in an attack of their own.

Flash ducked and rolled, gasping at the pain running through his arm and leg, and the creatures' weapons swished clumsily through the air where he had been. Chanting a rapid string of gibberish, the programmer mashed one of his baton's several buttons. Mist surrounded the tool and it morphed, growing instantly into a crude, man-sized doll that jerked into the path of the attacking blades.

The tips of the weapons stuck in the doll's soft, featureless wood, and the man-shaped thing grabbed one of them in each hand. Veins that had once run along the baton's surface gleamed beneath the puppet's skin, and Flash's creation faded to the same grey color as his enemies.

With a deathly whisper the third ghost creature dove through the ceiling, knife extended in its remaining good arm. Flash spoke a string of command words, and his ghost form puppet pivoted and tackled the enemy, its limbs closing around the creature in a grey embrace. The ghost creature's masked face jerked up in a silent scream as its companions' stolen knives plunged into its body.

00000

Zero's face tensed slightly. His voice came in labored grunts through his damaged throat. "Don't do this. I can still forgive you if she lives. We can be together forever, just like you wanted."

Celestia's brown eyes twitched, staring down at the young man like an accusing finger from the dead shores of Hell. "I don't want to be with you, slime. I'm going to torture you until your spirit dies, and then I'm going to kill your body. For what you did to me, I'll kill you until there's nothing left to kill."

With that, the vixen waved her hands. A crystalline prison the size and shape of a coffin swallowed the scorched young warrior and encased him completely, leaving no room to move and no way to speak. Were oxygen intake necessary for survival on Diamond Earth, he would have suffocated instantly in the solid translucent tomb. The rosy warrior gestured to Woodman, and he let Malon flop to the ground like a rag doll. Celestia waved her hands again, and a replica of Zero's prison took the young woman as well.

The strawberry blond laughed as she realized she'd turned one the oldest of her nightmares on its head. She still remembered it, after all these years: her, Celestia, lying broken and dying in a beautiful sapphire coffin while Zero watched, smiling. It was one of the least sickening of the many hellish dreams she'd had that night. The very first night after he had kissed her.

The first night after he had infected her with the Zero Nightmare.

00000

Flash trembled inside the heavily damaged, but still cloaked, little airship above, kneeling among the shattered bodies of the ghost men and the limp grey form of his puppet. His eyes wandered dully to the monitors showing a view of the mansion below, where several of Occuman's house guards, Picard, and Iris had made a belated appearance on the scene. Zero, Celes, and Malon were gone.

The mad programmer's blood formed shining pools on the floor. He began to call up the program to patch his wounds, but the brunet's arcane chant trailed off in a voiceless murmur. The man slumped forwards, his gangly body sprawling awkwardly atop his personal programming teleconsole. The impact cracked several small but vital pieces on the back of the device.

Hidden from friend and foe alike in the stealth ship, Flash lay very still across the darkened screen.


	20. Chapter 19: Morning After

**Chapter Nineteen: Morning After**

Malon woke to the sight of Zero's face on the pillow next to her own.

The young woman jerked upright, bringing the covers with her. A sinus headache hit her square between the eyes, exactly as it had the last time she'd had a Zero-induced pheromone hangover. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she stared at the warrior, his sleeping, muscled body naked in the rosy morning light.

Malon cursed under her breath and checked herself for clothes.

Nope. None whatsoever.

She cursed louder and rubbed her forehead with both hands. "Son-of-a-gun and his ------ smell. Next he'll try to marry me—oooh no."

The young woman's eyes widened and her hand went to her forehead, feeling around for a marriage seal. Determining her brow to be bare of tattoos, she let out a deep sigh and brushed some sky blue hair out of her eyes.

Malon sat and stared at Zero for a long moment. Even across the bed, her nose and other bits of her tingled with the effects of his pheromones. She began to smile slightly, then pinched herself and shook her head. Frowning, she pulled the blankets around her like a cozy cocoon of chastity and kicked the sleeping warrior in the ribs. "Get up."

Zero's eyes flicked open and his hand went to his waist. Finding not only no sabre sheath there, but also no pants, he considered the extremely well covered but nonetheless definitely-having-spent-the-night-in-his-bed young woman in front of him. He blinked.

"Malon? Where are we? Was it all a nightmare?" The young man sat up sluggishly and glanced briefly at the spare, cramped bedroom around them; it told him "hotel" with every elegantly impersonal piece of furnishing. He felt oddly heavy.

Malon glared with narrowed hazel eyes. "You are not going to get away with acting like an amnesiac. What kind of doofus do you think I am? I remember…" she blinked and looked away. "I don't remember 'cause you got me drunk, but there's no way that excuse will work for you. I was saving myself for…for someone special! You filthy beast," she added for good measure.

"Torture…when did I torture her? How?"

"You're doing it again! This is why I hate you! You never listen anymore!" Malon kicked the blond again, the heel of her foot landing a solid thump against his thigh.

Zero regarded her, his visage drooping. "I listen to everything, Malon. I just wish I'd listened harder." He leaned over to caress her face.

She slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me."

The young man's shoulders slumped, and he dropped his arm. "I'm sorry. For everything." He rolled out of bed, his movements still curiously slow. He ran his hand through his hair, the command key to summon his black bodysuit and scarlet plate mail. The armor failed to materialize.

Zero nodded, his expression smooth, and grabbed a metal lamp off the nightstand. Ripping off the shade and hoisting the appliance by the narrow end with the bulb, he faced the only entrance, a standard wooden door painted to match the room.

"Celestia, stop playing games and tell me why you're doing this."

A long moment passed as Zero crouched at the ready and Malon looked from him to the door. "Zero, what are you—"

The door, the doorframe, and part of the wall holding it shattered into a thousand flying splinters. A huge yellow man, shaped like a gorilla and armored like a tank, burst in and grabbed Malon from the bed. She kicked and screamed to no effect in his grasp. Zero leapt at the monstrous foe wielding the metal lamp like a club; his muscles twitched weakly, propelling him through the air no faster than an ordinary person.

Bereft of his speed and strength, the young warrior saw the yellow man's fist coming but could do nothing to dodge it. The gorilla shaped warrior swatted Zero from the air with one backhand blow, sending him crashing into the wall.

Lying in a crumpled heap, multiple bones broken, the young man watched helplessly as the huge armored thing ripped away Malon's blankets, leaving her totally exposed. The young woman screamed, waving her arms in the command key for an illusion, but nothing happened. She was like a half-size doll in the monster's hands.

"Gutsman, freeze," Celestia snapped as she walked from the pink light of the hallway into the ruined bedroom. He immediately stiffened in place, ignoring Malon's flailing fists.

The strawberry blonde warrior turned her brown-eyed glare on Zero. "Great job ruining my fun, jerk. I would have killed for the chance to watch Gutsman take away your girlfriend while you were getting it on…come to think of it, I still would. But you didn't even try with her. It's like you're all conspiring against me."

She frazzled her lovely shoulder-length hair. Her pink, light chain mail armor didn't include a helmet. "Whatever. Gutsman, haul her off to the rape room."

Immediately the monstrous yellow warrior moved towards the hole in the wall that had once held a door. Zero shifted slightly, his broken bones hurting like freezing burning stabbing massively hurting things as they began to knit. "No. Please. Let's talk first," he groaned through gritted teeth.

"Gutsman, halt." The creature once again stopped at Celestia's command. "And you, spineless wretch, silence." Without bothering to look at the other woman, the vixen waved a hand and Malon's hysterical screams faded like they'd been dropped in a well a mile deep. "What could you possibly say to make me happy, slime?"

"I'm sorry for what I did." Zero slowly forced himself into a submissive kneel, an act simply impossible for any normal man with two shattered thighbones. "Please, tell me what I did, so I can be more sorry."

Celestia cocked her head and leered at him. "Hahaha. That's another one. Another of the nightmares. I was naked, broken, battered, and begging for forgiveness, and you wouldn't give it.

"That's what you did, scum. You got in my head, in my dreams, and I couldn't wake up, no matter how much I wanted to. After the very first night, I felt like my soul was ripped in half; I was betrayed and tortured in ways I hadn't even imagined possible. You took my sad, hopeless existence and reduced it to something the lowest virus wouldn't bother to infect.

"I figured out how you did it that first morning after. It wasn't hard for someone like me to put together the pieces. You'd already told me how you kept that little village elder from checking you for malware after you became Zero. And kisses are the very best method of file transfer from person to person. All that time, ever since your christening, you had a weapon so much more powerful than the sabre, and you didn't even know it."

She laughed. "It's funny. You never realized it, but your parents left because of you, slime. Oh, you cried about their disappearance for years, and you told everything to me, your own personal handkerchief to sob into, and all the time you never knew what you had done to them.

"They left because you kissed your mommy goodbye, right there in the academy registrar when you first signed up for college. You infected her, and she infected your daddy, and the virus gave them dreams that drove them mad. The Zero Nightmare, I call it. Don't you just love the name?"

Celestia walked up to the kneeling young man and kicked him in the teeth. He fell backwards, his eyes closed and his face twitching as blood welled up behind his lips. She continued her monologue with a sneer. "You contaminated me too, when you locked lips with me that night in the belltower, and again in front of my apartment. I was weak, and you took advantage of me, just like every other man I'd known. You feckless bag of pus," the vixen interrupted herself, taking the time to kick the young man in a very private place.

She got back on topic as he screamed. "The first time around, the nightmares pounded the terror into my soul, worse fear than any I'd ever felt before. They were horrible beyond description, and I knew you were responsible. So I got as far away as I could, and used all my little skills to leave no trace of where I'd gone. Then I went for weeks without sleep, trying to find an antivirus program that would work. I could tell you were still inside me, slime, waiting for me to fall asleep.

"Eventually my system crashed while I was in some alley somewhere. The nightmares weren't as bad that time around." She stared at nothing a moment before her eyes refocused. "They were much worse. The morning after, when I woke up, I was in some old man's house, and I wasn't afraid any more. I was angry." She grinned. "I killed him, his three daughters, his sons in law, and all his grandchildren. More to the point, I did it without getting caught.

"You see, scumbag," she punctuated her remarks with precisely aimed kicks, "you drove me right over the edge I'd been looking at my whole life. I left the place with the fear and found the place with the hate. And I was still far more cunning than any normal fox, of course. Nothing less from me."

She sighed and paused in her brutalization of the bloodied, beaten blond. "It feels so good to be getting all this off my chest. As a gesture of thanks, maybe I should let you watch when I have your lover taken and violated in ways too terrible to name. Ooh! Better yet! You can pick which of my lackeys gets the honor!"

00000

Iris, dressed in the blackest of blacks, wept over the open pinewood coffin. Cpt. Yamato Nagasaki stood with his arm around her shoulders, his shining armor and green police cape accented with a coal black sash. They stood in the privacy of one of House Cainson's rooms.

Inside the coffin, Flash's corpse lay still and pale. The gashes in his leg and arm were patched, but had not healed; his processors stood silent inside his chest and belly. Otherwise, he remained unbroken. His body had not decomposed into its component programs, though hours had passed since his death.

"I can-n-n't do it, Captain," the brunette sobbed. "Not w-w-w-without him."

Nagasaki said nothing. She turned and beat her fists weakly on his silversteel chestplate. The metal rang dully in time with the blows.

"I planned and p-planned, I worked and schemed and manipu-ulated to make a world for us. I never meant for him to die! I thought he could handle it! I thought they could protect each other! I killed them, Yamato, I killed th-them!"

"It's okay, Sis, I'm still here."

Nagasaki shook his head. "I won't believe Mr. Doppler is dead until I see his body, Iris. He's a survivor."

"And Flash wasn't. He doesn't even look dead, he's barely h-h-h-hurt, but he's gone forever! Wh-why won't he reb-h-h-reboot? Why couldn't I j-just be h-happy at home? Why did I have to push th-th-this crap about coming-ing-ng here?"

"Stop crying, Sis. It's not your fault."

"Iris, I know nothing can bring Flash back, but if Zero can be found we'll find him." Nagasaki's scarred face set in a frown.

"You're ignoring me. Hmph. Ignore this: EXECUTE FlashBangAA3(4, 87.33, Pie, FF004577);!"

The mad programmer frowned as his code came back into his head with an error message attached. "Function library not found? Ridiculous! The OS is acting like I'm dead!"

Flash scowled at his corpse for a moment while his sister cried and the police captain held her. The mad programmer's eyes widened. His fingers twitched, tapping together faster and faster as his toes wiggled in his shoes.

"I'm dead…I'm dead! Whoo-hoo!" Turning his back on the couple of mourners, the hacker stared with a faraway grin in the direction of the Wind server's capitol city, Blizzard Valley.

Since before the Hurricane Rebellion, since before the Plague Wars, since the birth of Diamond Earth, Blizzard Valley had preserved and protected the physical location of the Wind server's operating system. It was the OS that controlled the physical laws and makeup of the entire server, the OS that granted the server's denizens the ability to communicate, to fight, and to interact, all according to a massively complex set of physical and structural rules. Flash salivated.

"Finally…I've waited so long, my precious. They kept me away before, but no one can stop a ghost. I'll bring them all back!"

He left, zooming like an intangible rocket through the walls, giggling all the way.

00000

"Celestia. Please tell me how you did all this. None of it makes sense to me," Zero shuddered.

The strawberry blonde laughed. "You always were a bit thick. All right, I'll explain it to you, slime. After I slaughtered the old man and his family, I got back to looking for a programmer that could cure me of the Zero Nightmare. I didn't pussyfoot around any more, though. After a few sleepless days' inquiry and some light torture I finally found a hacker smart enough to delete your malware from my systems, and forced him to do the job.

"Oh, yes, I forgot to mention. You're probably too dumb to have realized it, but you infected your little girlfriend here when you kissed her in the hotel a few weeks ago. It's just her good luck you gave her Flash's antivirus program before her brothers cut you down. Really, I'm surprised you haven't reinfected her since then. Maybe we'll have to fix that…but back to my story.

"After I rid myself of your filthy touch, I joined up with the local Sigma cultists. With them I finally took the power that has always been denied me." She laughed again, a hard edge riding on her soprano tones. "It turns out I have a lot of talent for getting power, slime. Just six months ago I took over administration of the Cult's movements for this entire region of the server. I'm the one in control now.

"Since then I've been tracking you, watching you, putting eyes and ears on every part of your life, so I could know when to strike. It was I who ordered Takato to provoke you into a deathmatch, so I could gauge your abilities outside of those silly school duels. It was I who sent the ghost men to search your house. It was I who brought in Clawbeast and those hackers to get you in trouble with the law.

"I set up the kangaroo trial to keep you in prison, I organized the attack on that ------ Iris' house, and I would have had you then if her scumbag hired police had killed that copy of you like they should have. I would have had you, and no one but me would know you weren't dead. It would have been so perfect, so sweet.

"Of course, this is pretty good too. My hackers managed to disable your armor, weapons, strength, and speed programs before your systems backhacked them to death, so you're helpless to stop me from having my way with you and your pathetic little girlfriend. And since my men already killed off your little buddy Flash, no one alive could possibly discover our position, so I'll have you all to myself for as long as I want.

"Plus, with you out of the way I can kill off Iris. That'll create a little bit of scandal, but such things pass. The main thing is, I'll be able to continue my takeover of Stormy Hill and the rest of the Wind server." Her brown eyes dilated as they swept over his naked, bleeding body. "It's good to be the one in charge, Zero. It feels so good."

The young man spat out a broken tooth as another one slowly grew in to take its place. Moving stiffly, he knelt again and bowed his head.

Humans with vulpine traits typically possessed a superior sense of smell and, more to the point, highly sensitive pheromone receptors compared to those of normal people. He'd spent over ten minutes naked in a semi-enclosed space with the foxy warrior now, his hidden biochemical weapon pouring off him like an invisible, aphrodisiac mist. Zero knelt lower to the ground.

"Celes, I'll be a willing slave if you keep Malon alive and safe. I'll be yours forever, and you'll be in charge. Just don't hurt Malon." He raised his head to lock gazes with her. "If you hurt her I'll have to fight you until I'm dead."

Celestia cocked her head. "Hmm. Not a bad argument. I do want to keep you alive for a while." She licked her lips as she looked Zero over again. "And you would definitely be fun to play with. Such a big, strong man…oh, how you will scream."

"Anything to make you happy. But Malon must be kept safe or I will force you to kill me, Celes." His sapphire eyes narrowed slightly, fixed on her brown ones.

Celestia stood there, gazing down at Zero. "How troublesome. I had intended for her treatment to be part of your torture, but it would be so much more fun if you didn't resist me in my play. Hm."

With that, the vixen lapsed into silence for a minute. She began to smile, slightly at first, then more and more until a fang-enhanced grin dominated her countenance. She giggled.

"You're such a clever young man, Zero. I have three strong emotions towards you, and you've hit two of them: my need for control, and my twisted, lustful urges. I want to own you, all of you, so I'll let your girlfriend keep her virginity.

"However, the very strongest of my emotions is hate. More than anything else, I want you to hurt, and I know exactly what will hurt you the most."

The vixen giggled again. "Gutsman, smash her head."

Zero shouted something incoherent, shoving himself to his feet. His broken body crumpled beneath him, leaving him helpless to do anything but watch. For a moment, Malon's hazel eyes found his, and her lips framed a few silent words.

_I was wrong. I love you, Z—_


	21. Chapter 20: Released

**Chapter Twenty: Released**

Flash's spirit zoomed across the landscape towards Blizzard Valley. In no time at all he arrived in the metropolis and sought out the colossal fortress that held the OS.

"Heh, try to keep me out this time," the dead programmer chuckled as he zipped straight into the quadruple-firewalled structure. "I'll know all the secrets. All of them. Then I'll bring back Mommy and Daddy."

00000

Celestia sighed, brushing a hard, glittery bit of Malon's virtual drive off her rosy chain mail. "What a shame, Zero. Your latest girlfriend seems to have left you. Just like your parents left you. Just like I left you. How does it feel to be abandoned, not once but three times over?" She noticed that some of the blood data had spattered onto her shoulder, smiled, and licked it off.

Making small, senseless noises, the young warrior forced his body to its feet, only to collapse again. His sapphire eyes remained locked on Malon's headless corpse. His foxy captor broke into a cacophony of laughter.

"You're three times a fool, Zero. You're even less than your name tells you to be. No one will ever stay with you for long. You drive them to leave, force them to run or die just to get away from you. Tell me, how does it feel to be left behind?"

"No, no, no, NO!" Zero crawled towards Gutsman's feet, still staring at the corpse clutched in the yellow monster's hand.

Celestia frowned. "You aren't listening to me. Well, that can be fixed. Gutsman, toss her over."

He complied wordlessly, and Malon's remains thumped to the floor in front of the strawberry blonde. Celestia stepped around the decomposing body, drawing a wide circle in the air with her finger. Zero gaped as flames poured down from the circle and incinerated his girlfriend beyond the faintest hope of recovery.

"See? Gone. And in case you didn't hear me earlier, I should tell you now: I saw to it that Flash died too. He's gone, just like everyone else you care about. Oh, don't stop squirming, it's so fun to watch."

Zero stared at the charred circle of ground. There was absolutely nothing left. He closed his eyes and clutched his head, shaking. Then he went still, his hands clenching into fists.

Celestia grinned, standing with hands on hips. And in the next moment, she slammed into the wall, Zero holding her around the throat while a suit of utterly black armor materialized around him. Her eyes lit on his, and it was like staring into the void between universes. It was nothing, the kind of nothing that drinks in passion and gives back only despair. It was zero, not a number but a nightmare of emptiness given flesh.

"Maverick," he breathed. "Maverick."

Gutsman, bereft of orders, stood motionless and watched from the other side of the room while the black-armored warrior drew his weapon. Its shape and contours recalled the same sabre with which Zero had defeated a thousand enemies, but as the blond unsheathed the metal blade it blazed a brilliant white. It was a beam saber, a sword edged both with razor-sharp metal and a continuous, freestanding aura of lethal light energy.

Zero thrust the weapon up into the foxy warrior's belly, the metal edge rupturing several of her subprocessors while the wreath of light seared the surrounding flesh. The dark warrior pulled his blade out of her and thrust again, this time at the young woman's chin, but Celestia's form flashed and she disappeared.

The beam saber slid through the wall like an arrow through fog. Zero's form blurred, and Gutsman fell to the floor in several pieces.

Before the monster's cloven head had joined its severed legs on the ground, the fake hotel room detonated. Simultaneously, fire flooded the hallway room outside, leaving no room for anything whatsoever to survive. No trace of the blond warrior or his gorilla shaped victim remained after the devastation.

Rematerializing in a nearby hallway, Celestia threw a glittering force field up around herself and patched her stomach wound. She jerked around as something banged on the shield.

Zero chopped away at the shining defense with his saber. Lightning crackled from the force field up through the saber's blade and into his body every time the weapon connected, but the dark warrior gritted his teeth and relentlessly continued the assault. Cracks appeared in the shield as, by sheer strength, speed, and weapon power, the dark warrior damaged the shield faster than it could regenerate itself. Watching him pound away, Celestia's eyes caught upon an odd detail: Zero had something clenched in his left hand, something small and blue.

Taking no more notice of the other warrior's shield arm, the strawberry blonde snatched a few glass beads out of her weapons pouch and chanted the activation key. As her defense shattered, the vixen flicked the beads into the air and disappeared again. Zero darted out of the way as the beads exploded in a thunderclap and blast of superheated steam. His ears ringing slightly, the dark warrior slashed open the ceiling over his head and leapt up into another room.

There were a few chairs, an old Go board on a table, and a couple of wrinkly old warriors with weapons already in hand. The two of them, by their appearance and body language probably man and wife, attacked with short spears made for melee combat. Zero deflected one jab with his shield and beheaded one of the spears with his saber. Then he did the same to both spears' owners.

After slashing through the couple's disembodied skulls, permanently destroying their virtual drives, the blond kicked a hole in the wall and burst into the next room. A couple of men in civilian clothes took one look and scrambled for the door, but neither made it that far. As their blood data pooled on the ground, Zero took a moment to grab up one of their teleconsoles in his right hand, and laid a gentle kiss on the face of it. His left hand still clenched the something small and blue that Celestia had noticed.

Then he ripped a jagged X mark in the floor and dropped through the crumbling center, landing upright on an altar the size of a table in the midst of a shower of wood, carpet, and plaster. Several identically masked, robed cultists stood in front of him and the altar in a half-circle. Another cultist wearing robes with heavy golden stitching and a more elaborate mask stood behind him, traditional flaying knife in hand. The sacrifice, a little boy lying chained to the altar, remained absolutely still. Zero's metal boots had dented the metal next to his head in the landing.

For a split second Uncle Fastener hesitated, the words "Stop the blasphemer!" rising in his throat. He got out "S—" before making a sudden, one-way trip to Hell, accompanied by the other Sigma worshippers. As his spirit ripped away from his body, the scarred old priest's ghostly hands grabbed for the little boy. He missed.

Zero leapt towards one of the doors to the unholy room, leaving the sacrifice unharmed but also unfreed. The pale, wide-eyed boy struggled in vain against his manacles' chill embrace while brief screams echoed from the next chamber.

00000

Celestia's fingers shook as she typed in the command key for the long-range teleportation program. Her stomach wound had reopened despite the patch, leaking randomized data over the floor while her auxiliary processors took up the slack from those that had been destroyed. The vixen cursed and hunched over her work as an explosion rocked the building.

Her long, tapered fox ears twitched and her tail bristled. Even through the heavy blackstone walls of her inner sanctum, she could tell. The screams were getting closer.

Celestia tapped the Enter key and waited with the teleconsole gripped in one white-knuckled hand. Her other hand twitched at the ready by her weapons pouch. Dust settled down from the ceiling, and through the walls she heard metal twang and something smash something else repeatedly.

Finally, after several seconds that seemed like minutes, the TC spat back an answer in a neutral female voice. "Error 303: unable to connect to destination. Virus detected. Error 303849994XDjjjRE#dasdf.—"

Celestia hurled the teleconsole away. Its screen crackled and spat viscous black fluid in a steady stream. The vixen stepped back and donned a pair of rosy pink gloves, snapping her fingers as she did so. Her image bled away from her actual body like a watercolor in the rain, changing her appearance to that of a pinkish smudge several feet in diameter.

As the illusion took hold, the rosy warrior walked around the room and set up her defenses. Her hands described several circles in the air and floor, and the vixen tossed around over a dozen glass beads, which rolled into apparently random spots in the area. Two or three ended up in light fixtures in the ceiling after she tossed them up with a flick of her wrist. Finally, the young woman bared her teeth and growled softly, calling a fifteen-foot, glowing, nine-tailed whip into her hands. Its image blurred with the rest of her.

Celestia's ears twitched and she dodged to the side as something that had once been human-shaped smashed through the three inch thick blackstone wall. With a small, precise motion of her fingers, the warrior woman activated one of her foxfire circles and turned the intrusion into slag.

The blonde flicked a kunai knife at the irregular breach in the wall. Half of a tan helmet hurled through the hole at the same time, and the two projectiles collided with a small implosion as the little blade's program triggered. From Celestia's side, nothing much seemed to change, although the air shimmered slightly where the kunai had activated. From the chamber beyond, however, the hole now depicted an extremely realistic but nevertheless completely inaccurate view of Celestia's inner sanctum. Anyone leaping through the hole would have to change plans in midair if they'd based their trajectory on the false image.

Zero came through the ceiling instead. There was a crash, a grinding noise, and masonry fell in the only way masonry can: heavily. Celestia ducked and rolled, her blurred image wavering from side to side and everywhere around her. As she came up the vixen spoke an activation key and one of the glass beads exploded in a thunderous gout of steam, sending the dark armored blond flying into a wall.

Moving with impossible speed and grace, the warrior landed feet first and kicked off the wall at an angle, sending him hurtling towards his foxy opponent. Celestia snapped up the whip, its many tails reaching of their own accord to catch at the young man's body. Zero's sword arm blurred, and the Z-Saber clove the weapon's glowing tails to the floor, where they writhed like headless snakes.

Meanwhile, the strawberry blonde had long since dropped the whip and dodged aside, activating another foxfire circle. Her opponent's kite shield intercepted the infernal torrent, but then two more glass beads exploded, hurling him into another column of flames.

Zero twisted to the side, dodging the worst of it, but sacrificed most of his shield arm to the inferno. His shield dangled uselessly from the charred appendage by the time the warrior passed the foxfire circles and hit the floor. Of his whole left arm, only the hand had escaped the heat, leaving its tightly held little cargo unscathed.

Celestia somersaulted across the room with vulpine grace, speaking the command word for the glass bead at the blond man's feet. In the instant before its detonation, Zero flicked the weapon away with the tip of his blade. The tiny bomb went off less than a yard from his opponent's pretty face.

Zero dashed across the floor towards the scalded, concussed young warrior, his saber held at the ready. The severed whip's tails grabbed at his feet, but fell aside in smoking fragments in his passage. Another foxfire circle loomed before him, but the warrior broke its faint, shimmering outline with the saber before Celestia could activate it. Four more glass beads exploded, but the shockwave and steam were too far away even to slow him down.

Zero slashed and stabbed at his enemy's blurred image, searching for the squirming, dodging body inside the illusion. A thin column of flame shot at him from the big pink smudge, but he simply stepped aside and raised the Z-Saber for a cleaving blow.

Abruptly the dark warrior arched his back and threw himself into a reverse somersault. Bullets hailed through the air where he had been, followed by a pair of missiles that curved to pursue him. Zero tumbled to the side and tossed a piece of rubble into one rocket's path. The piece of blackstone and the missile both disintegrated into an unstructured mass of data, and the data immediately vanished.

His pit black eyes widened, and the dark warrior sprang past the other missile. The blond's super long ponytail whipped within inches of the weapon as it spun 180° to pursue. Zero twisted to kick some rubble to intercept, but bullets rained into his legs before he could complete the maneuver. As he crumpled to the ground and the rocket neared his stricken body, the young warrior slashed at the incoming missile with the Z-Saber and connected solidly. Weapon touched weapon, and there was a flash of light. The homing missile, the Z-Saber, and Zero all disintegrated into a vast, shining cloud of particles.

Celestia slumped against the wall, watching her college boyfriend's body evaporate. Her savior appeared wordlessly at her side, and she allowed him to help her up.

As she stared at the place where the dark warrior had lain so briefly, the vixen's face contorted silently in a series of expressions. Eventually, however, she addressed the underling who had come to her rescue. Her voice trembled only very slightly.

"Your timing needs work. But nevertheless, well done, Vile."


	22. Chapter 21: Darkness

Author's note: there are Mega Man X4 spoilers in this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One: Darkness**

Kim Soon Lee stepped heavily on the brakes, bringing his car to a stop as he reached the end of the driveway. The 5'8", 130 lbs. professional cartoon artist jerked his passkey out of the ignition, locking the vehicle's wheels firmly in place, and climbed out with his briefcase in hand.

Kim slammed the car door shut and touched a button on the passkey. The vehicle's doors and windows sealed seamlessly into the rest of the frame, leaving no way to enter besides another use of the key. His eyes glaring at the ground in front of him, the thin, dark-haired animator stomped over to the front of his house and wrestled another passkey out of his pocket to unlock the door.

When he stepped into the narrow, cluttered front hall, Kim blinked at the slow, mellow chords of music that greeted him. His grimace lightened to a frown as a woman began to sing.

It was sung in Reformed Asian, the dominant language of the Hong Phi Like server. The words would have been gibberish to most of Stormy Hill's inhabitants. Kim turned to the origin of the music.

Yai Soon Lee smiled at him as she stroked the harp's strings and sang on. It was an unusual combination, Korean music played on an originally Grecian instrument, but Diamond Earth was nothing if not a melting pot.

She still wore a dust-covered cleaning outfit, and a vacuum lay in a heap to the side. Kim saw that his wife hadn't settled fully into her chair the way she usually did when she performed. He laid his briefcase carefully to the side, unbuttoned his collar, and loosened his tie. For a long moment, the man simply stood there, listening to the music as he looked Yai up and down.

His wife played for another minute or two, watching as Kim's straight-backed posture began to slump into something approaching relaxation. Finally, she laid the harp aside and rose, holding out her slightly dusty hands.

Her husband walked over and took them. He pulled her to sit with him on the couch and spoke in their native tongue.

"Heaven has granted me a better wife than I could ever deserve. How many would listen to the weight of my footfalls and meet my anger with the song of a nightingale?"

"You are the light in my sky and the pillars of my mansion, dearest. I cannot help but love you."

They shared a private moment, at the end of which the animator mumbled a question about their son. Yai smiled.

"Jong is doing well with the new tutor. Mr. Roberts was able to teach him another chapter from that book on New English. He says it is all a matter of establishing trust."

"I hope that is true. With the fees he charges, he could buy a man's head off his shoulders and leave him happy for the deal." Kim sighed, stroking his wife's short black hair. "It is all so expensive, the raising of children, and I am a poor man."

"Your boss once again refused to grant you a pay raise? That son of mushrooms, he does not know your true worth."

"Please do not speak so, my nightingale. I want only to be home now, with my son and my wife. Work can stay at work."

"Truly? Then now would perhaps be the time to tell you…" Yai fidgeted. "I have been to see the doctor about my dizziness and stomachaches. He said there was nothing to worry about."

"Then is that not good news, dearest?"

"Yes, of course…but it would have been very good for you to get that raise, after all. Perhaps you might consider going to other companies with your portfolio." She wrung her hands.

"Yai, do your words mean what I think they mean?" The animator kept his voice level.

His wife opened her mouth to respond when something thudded heavily to the floor. Both immigrants' heads jerked around to see what it was. Yai screamed and Kim clutched her close while the reek of charred flesh filled the room.

They saw the sword first. Kim had heard of and seen beam sabers, but only in cartoons for children; for the rest of his life, he would never forget this one. It was long, one-edged, and had cut a chunk out of the floor when it landed. Its blade glowed white.

In contrast, the man holding the weapon was dressed in the blackest armor either civilian had ever seen. It didn't simply swallow the light, it radiated darkness.

Data oozed from a bullet hole in one of the legs plates, and the man's left arm had been scorched beyond use. Something blue peeked out from between the fingers of the left hand, the only unscathed part of the appendage. His kite shield had fallen to the floor a foot or so away.

The young man rose slowly to his feet, picking up the saber as he did so, and the couple cowered away from his muscled, 6'3" frame. He turned towards them, and they looked into his eyes for the first time. Yai screamed again as she stared into those eyeball-shaped gaps in reality.

Kim grabbed up his briefcase and held it in front of his wife like a shield. He spoke in heavily accented New English. "Take anything, no hurt woman! She have baby inside! Please!"

The dark warrior watched them for a moment, his right hand twitching as it gripped the hilt of the beam saber. While he stood there, his leg wound closed off and the burns on his left arm and armor began to heal. His systems also took the time to repair various bruises they couldn't see. When at last he spoke, the blackness drained out of the young blond's eyes, and he stared straight through the couple.

"Sigma…I remember now. I've served you all this time."

00000

Celestia growled at the programmer as he patched her wounds. Vile leaned against the wall, listening to her rant.

"…I wish all your wretched fellows were still alive so I could kill them myself. They said they'd taken away all his weapons! This should never have happened. I'm fine now. Get out of my sight," she snapped at the hapless lackey, who sprinted out of the room.

"Do you want me to kill him, Lady Kyuubit?" Vile's voice echoed from the round-topped cylinder of a helmet that totally encased his head. A narrow eyeslit allowed him vision, and another slit ran down from between the eyes to the bottom of the chin, but only darkness was visible through either slit. The warrior wore deep violet full plate that covered him head to toe, and hints of mud-brown bodysuit showed through underneath. A pair of bulges on both his back and his boots indicated the presence of jump jets, and a heavy rocket launcher stood mounted on one of his shoulders. Other weapons waited for use in hidden compartments of the bulky armor.

"No, after that utter nonsense with Zero we need all the programmers we can…wait. You mean Zero, don't you? You honestly think you can kill that man, after what he did here?" she scoffed.

"Yes, Lady. If he is always as irrational and reckless as this, then it will be easy. My missile won't have teleported him far—"

"No. You're too valuable to waste against him. Ugh, the slime, he's made a mess of everything…that virus of his even disabled the intercom. Get some programmers to clean it up and make sure the insulation wasn't compromised. If those fools up above heard that racket or felt the explosion we'll have to get to one of the other headquarters before the Elites catch on."

"Yes, Lady."

Vile walked off with a smooth, easy stride that belied the weight of his armor. His metal boots made barely a whisper of noise on the blackrock floor, and the joints of the violet full plate slid across one another like oiled snakeskin. Leaving behind the ruin of his boss's inner sanctum, the warrior strode across the compound and glanced around at the corpses; torn and mangled, they were strewn like broken piñatas across floors, walls, furniture, and in one case the ceiling.

Vile noted the postures of his fellow cultists' decomposing bodies and inspected the wounds they'd taken. Squatting down, he picked up a chain mail shirt that had been cut neatly in two. Individual links of silversteel on the edge of the rent had melted with the saber's passage and fused with the heavy cloth below into a solid weal of metal and polyester.

While he roamed around analyzing Zero's handiwork, the indigo warrior organized the surviving cultists by the extremely simple "point 'n click" method. It had suited Vile well his entire career. He pointed at what he wanted fixed, and if for any reason anybody disagreed he clicked the safety off one of his guns.

At the tiny sound, men paralyzed in the Maverick Hunter's wake suddenly found their senses and began to use them again. Vile went the entire morning without having to kill anyone.

Back in her chambers, Celestia found a teleconsole that wasn't spitting up black goo and drafted a message to one of her many allies. Her fingers shook a little as she typed.

"You'll be mine, Zero," she whispered to the shadows. Her full, pink lips twisted in a sneer, showing off her little fangs. "All mine."

00000

Over a hundred miles away, in Blizzard Valley, Flash's ghost filtered through the billions of subroutines and data files that composed the server's massive operating system. Sentries, wards, scans, and all manner of guardian programs failed to detect his presence. The mad, dead programmer drooled, eyes popped wide, as he took in terabyte after terabyte of data. The monkey had been given the key to the banana plantation.

Snatches of light and movement flitted on the periphery of the brunet's vision. He ignored the hallucinations and muttered under his breath in almost coherent phrases.

"Frozen…lies, it's all frozen lies, they wouldn't listen, they never listened. A hole, poked a hole in space and it all went down the drain. Not real, they're never real, why can't they be real Mommy? Where are you?

"It's all here, it's all here, I'll find you, I'll see where they put you, Daddy. You'll come back and I'll bring you back and everything is WHY IS IT NOT HERE NOOOO!" Flash wailed as he searched, his ghostly processors whirring at a million revolutions per second and getting faster. Then he his mouth dropped open farther, but lost all sound.

He saw himself, his own programs, reflected in the great, beastly brain that was the OS. He was a tiny array of tiny files in a vast, buzzing server. He was only a drop in the ocean of humanity. More to the point, he was only a corpse.

There was no record of his existence other than inside the open coffin lying in a room of his house. His parents lay in coffins buried in his hometown's cemetery, dead like him. Flash stared at the spinning, flickering numbers, but nothing changed. Trembling, he curled into a fetal position and clenched his fists and toes.

"I can bring them back!" he shouted at the phantoms on the edge of perception. They whispered in response, muttering things to him in a language like none of Diamond Earth or Old Earth either.

Slowly, his amber eyes tightly shut, the hacker shifted his gangly body into a crouch. The voices echoed through him like strings pulling a puppet. Tilting back his head, the brunet looked up, and saw not ceiling or sky but vast, colorless emptiness. He looked down, and saw blackness.

Flash looked with no eyes on the dead, lightless landscape outside the world of code known as Diamond Earth. He heard with no ears the forgotten screams of Old Earth. He touched with no fingers the wasteland of his world. He tasted with no tongue the bitterness of the Great Death. Perceiving his own nothingness, the programmer's nonexistent body relaxed and he frowned.

"They're trying to stop me from wearing the tunic again."

00000

Inside of reality as he knew it, Cpt. Nagasaki stood with his young charge by Flash's coffin, in the Decorative Workshop. Alia's voice beamed a message into the police warrior's communication buffer, and he stiffened.

"Iris, there's someone at the door. Please wait here," the scarred old man grunted.

The young woman looked up from Flash's still, pale, and above all else, very dead form. Her eyes were red from crying. "What? What's going on?"

"I'll know soon enough. Please wait here, Miss."

"Oh. If you think it's best," she murmured to his back, watching as he stalked off. Iris sighed, pulled out her TC, and entered a command code. A window opened, showing a live feed from the receiver hidden in a corner of the front porch. The brunette gasped at the sight of her dark champion staring up at her, his left hand clenched at his side.

Nagasaki drew his longsword with one hand as he put the other on the latch. A few feet away, Cramer crouched almost invisibly on the wall; once again, gravity seemed unable to work properly on him. As his captain passed, the ninja drew out two fistfuls of poisoned shuriken.

Outside, the once-crimson warrior clicked the intercom button. "I am…is Iris in?"

"Who's asking?" Nagasaki growled back.

"I need Iris."  
"She's not in."

"Don't lie to me, Captain. Iris, I know you're there."

Nagasaki half-turned as the young woman's slippered feet sounded softly on the marble entryway. "Miss, they copied him before and they could do it again. Let my men deal with this."

She nodded. "I appreciate the thought. Let him in, sir."

The policeman shook his head. "Miss, h—"

"I am the master of this domain, Yamato, and as such I ask you to respect my wishes. Let him in, sir." Her teary amber eyes locked onto his, her chin tilted to a regal angle.

He held her gaze for several seconds, but the young woman's countenance seemed forged from silversteel. "Fine…Miss," the police warrior grunted, and turned to the door.

"Sheathe your sword before you admit a guest into my home, Yamato."

This time the captain didn't even try to stare her down. He put away his weapon and opened the door before the brunette could say anything else.

Zero stood there, one of his fists still clenched at his side. His face and hair looked extremely pale against the total blackness of his armor. Without so much as a glance at Nagasaki, the young man's crystal blues landed on Iris and stayed there. He made no move towards her, though.

The young woman looked him up and down, and her hands began to shake. "You're alive. Zero…you're alive."

He stood absolutely still. "Flash is dead?"

"Y-yes."

Zero nodded. "As I thought. Iris, I remembered the truth about us, about Sigma. I need to show you." He took a step towards her, and Yamato blocked the dark warrior's path.

"Iris, he's been turned! R—" there was a short, sharp series of metallic noises. The police captain fell aside with a grunt, his chestplate dented, his codpiece shattered, and his helmet cracked in two places.

Shuriken fell on the Zero like horizontal rain, biting into the joints of his armor, but the blond brushed them off with his clenched left fist. Their venomous payload broke like waves on a cliff side against his antiviral systems.

He reached Iris, her eyes wide, and caught her between his armor and the crook of his arm. She gasped as the dark warrior put his right hand to her head and poured his memories into her mind.

00000

* * *

Author's note: warning, Mega Man X4 spoilers

* * *

Iris Thorne scurried across the room, her ankle-length brown hair flying to and fro as she searched the control panels. Outside, the banging on the gate grew louder, while thunder thundered and rain rained in the way of rain and thunder everywhere. At this time of night there was no one else in the great, glittering room full of computers and communication equipment.

"I know, I know, I'm trying to find it!" Iris wailed into the Bluetooth hooked over her ear. Her gloved fingers brushed across the keyboards with a noise like a dozen ping-pong balls tap dancing on hard plastic.

Finally, the spotter spotted her prey on another panel and pounced, the heel of her hand coming down hard on one button among the many. The gate opened, admitting a single Maverick Hunter into the entryway from the storm outside. Iris dashed over, grabbing a towel on her way.

She stopped just short of running into him. Zero, drenched with rain, took the towel without a word or glance at her. The young female reploid stood by, her hands clasped in front of her, watching him wipe the moisture out of his long, blond hair. Iris' gaze roved up and down his body.

Long gashes ran across the hunter's red, black, and white armor. One of the shining green crystals set into his chest plating had been shattered, and something had torn the armor on one of his thighs to ribbons. Even as Iris watched, the armor knitted itself back together as the hunter's nanotech self-repair systems treated his wounds. Zero handed the towel, now damp, to the spotter.

She bit her lip and took it. "Master Zero…you're still all wet. Please let me dry you off. Then we can get that crystal for your chest replaced."

He looked down at her, in her clashing red and blue Repliforce uniform. "Iris Thorne…why are you still here?"

She flinched away, her fingers tightening around the towel. Her face paled and she started to gush out a reply like soda from a broken tap. "Um, uh, there aren't many other spotters or communication people left 'cause they mostly went to fight and Signas said you always have to have a spotter so the Mavericks can't sneak up on you I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

"Whoah. It's okay." His eyes widened and he laid his hands on her shoulders. He spoke more quietly. "Slow down. I mean, why are you here at all? Your brother is in Repliforce. You were designed and built wearing their colors. You only ever joined us Maverick Hunters on an exchange program that was doomed from the beginning.

"You don't have to be on either side if you don't want to be, Iris. No one will call you a Maverick if you decide not to fight. You're lucky that way."

Her gaze fell to her shoes, her face scrunched up and her shoulders hunched over. "I don't want to go. I want to help. I have to help. Please let me help, Master Zero." The brunette brought up her trembling hands and started stroking one of his arms with the towel.

He stood there, gazing down at her beret. "I'm sorry. It's…X has been on my case since all this started," the young man whispered. "He told me I was keeping you caged up in here. Told me I was selfish to hold you. He said I should let you go…I guess he was wrong."

Iris kept rubbing the towel up and down his forearm, staring into nothing. Zero put his hand over hers and guided her movements up around his shoulder, then over his chest and torso, and on to his back. She kept her gaze lowered the entire time.

Eventually, the crimson maverick hunter took the towel from her and put it aside. He ran a hand through the spotter's long, dark brown hair. Smiling, he tilted her head up so he could gaze upon the brunette's cherubic visage, and her beret fell off. Iris' baby blue eyes fixated on a point three inches to the left of the hunter's nose.

Zero's smile faded and his forehead wrinkled, the artificial skin reacting almost exactly like a human's. "Iris…is something wrong? Isn't this what you meant? What you wanted?"

She shook her head and crumpled against his muscled, armored form. "Yes, it's just…Master Zero, I can't believe…finally…you really…"

He held her close, his smile returning. "Yes. Really. But don't call me Master again or I'll have to have you transferred."

"Yes, sir."

The hunter shook his head. "Try again."

"Erm…um …Zero? I can call you Zero?" She finally looked up into his emerald green eyes.

"Yeah. Any time you want, Iris."

He smiled wider and leaned his head in, his lips hovering a millimeter from hers. Iris Thorne wrapped her arms around his shoulders, closed her baby blues, and launched herself into the first kiss of her life. Zero staggered back into a wall with the impact, his own eyes wide.

Alarms buzzed throughout the compound, and the crimson hunter pulled away from his spotter. Iris steadied herself against the wall while the other reploid vaulted over one of the consoles and connected the comlink to Maverick Hunters HQ.

A warrior reploid's face appeared on one of the screens, and his voice echoed into the base. "Megaman Zero, this is Signas. I wish I had time to let you rest after finishing Slash Beast, but there's a new Repliforce target you need to handle immediately.

"We've discovered a hidden snow base. Halt production of their new weapon. Schematics of the area are on their way…"

00000

Iris Cainson's skin turned gray as the memories flooded her processors and filled up the free space on her virtual drive. She watched, helpless, as countless reploids died at the end of the crimson hunter's blade. She saw her robotic namesake cry out in every quavering word, every trembling motion against the war between the Maverick Hunters and the Repliforce.

Zero had even killed Iris Thorne's own brother, the Colonel, after all the times she had pleaded with the blond reploid to spare him. Through his eyes, Iris Cainson bore witness as the hunter destroyed the Colonel's body to the point that nothing could bring him back. Zero had returned to find Iris Thorne gone…

The brunette crumpled against the warrior's scarlet armor, much as she had done in another universe, four hundred years ago. _Please, Zero, I can't take it. I can't take it._

_You need to see this. You need to know what we did on the Final Weapon._


	23. Chapter 22: Apocalypse

Author's note: warning, Mega Man X4 spoilers ahead.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Apocalypse**

Megaman X's tenor voice crackled over the comlink. "I still think I should've come up with you, Zero. Investigating those 'diamond chip' computers of Sigma's could've waited."

Zero flicked the Z-Saber out of its sheath and stabbed it into the heavy, deadbolted blast door. Behind him, dismembered reploids twitched and bled out the last of their energy. He'd left nothing in the hangar with enough consciousness or even enough limbs to find or damage the shuttle he'd come in on.

"Iris is up here somewhere. That makes this my job. Besides, those quantum computers could be part of something dangerous."

"Yeah, but—"

When the crimson hunter began to carve a hole in the massive door, it unbolted and retracted into the ceiling. Zero jerked out his saber, grimaced, and edged through into the embarkation room, weapon in hand. "Requesting radio silence," he muttered, and the other hunter's voice went quiet.

Equipment and weaponry lay strewn across the floor. One small figure stood alone amidst the chaotic assortment of combat supplies and other gear. Clad in the same old blue and red Repliforce uniform as always, her arms cradled a glowing purple crystal the size of her head.

Zero sheathed his weapon. "Iris!"

The brunette gazed at him, her hands stroking the crystal. "So you fought with my brother…"

His breath caught in his throat. "I'm sorry."

There was a long silence. He waited, his robotic muscles held tense, for the blue-eyed brunette to speak.

"Then it's over. Everything…" Iris' face twitched as she stared at the blond.

Zero reached his hands out to her. "Wait Iris! Listen to me!"

She shook her head. "Goodbye, Zero…"

"Iris!"

"Forgive me, Zero." Her hands pressed just so, and the crystal shot into the air.

As his one and only love activated the device's power, the blond dashed towards her. The crystal's glow intensified and it shot down a beam of energy, but the crimson hunter had already tackled the other reploid and tumbled with her out of the way. As its light bounced unabsorbed off the floor, the device's aura faded and it tumbled to the ground.

Zero and Iris rolled across the floor until he stopped and pinned her beneath him. While she blinked and gasped, he knelt up to straddle her and patted the brunette down for other weapons. Finding none, he pinned her again and started shouting.

"How could you do this to me! Don't you have any idea what that crystal would have done to you? I would have had to kill you! You…you're a Maverick, just like the rest! It's Sigma, isn't it? He got to you somehow!"

Iris shook her head, trembling. "No, I'm not a Maverick…I can't live in a world where I'm alive and my brother isn't. I'm not strong like you, Zero…I knew you would kill me if I attacked."

The blond's grip on her slackened. "This can't be happening. This isn't real. You were everything I wanted. What have I been fighting for?"

Iris' expression melted. "I…I was?"

He looked into her baby blues, clenching and unclenching his teeth. "Now it's too late."

"No, it's not too late. Zero…I'll keep living if you'll live with me. I promise I won't try to hurt you again." Iris got a grip on the blond's elbow and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Zero started to rise, but she caught his shoulder and brought her face up to his. She closed her eyes and parted her lips, but still the crimson hunter hesitated.

"There's no time for that now. I have to disable the weapon—"

Iris wouldn't let go or open her eyes. "It won't even be ready for hours…please, I need to know it's true…"

Zero glanced at the deadbolted doors and out the forcefield reinforced windows at Earth's quiet bulk. He turned to the brunette, waiting for him. Always waiting.

"If that's so…the world can spare a minute for you," he whispered, and kissed her.

Ten minutes later, while they lay tangled on the floor, the Final Weapon fired.

Zero broke off as a noise like a glass thunderclap shook the orbital colony. Drawing power through a wormhole into the Sun itself, the Final Weapon extended an invisible force field and folded the massive bulk of the Earth into a space the size of a grain of sand.

Looking at it from a nine-dimensional perspective, it would be like watching a magician pull Fort Knox out of a child's ear. In the three spatial dimensions Zero's mind understood, his planet simply disappeared from existence. The reploid turned from the sight and gazed blankly into his betrayer's baby blue eyes.

In the few instants after Earth vanished into the void and before the space colony followed it, Iris Thorne clutched the crimson hunter and whispered her last words. "I'm sorry, Zero…Sigma promised a world just for reploids, where we could be together forev—"

00000

Megaman Zero's memories cut off at this point. The hunter's senses dissolved as he and everything he knew dropped through a hole in the universe and rent its way through the screaming, soundless void between dimensions. No one living could possibly perceive what happened next. The ghostly Flash, unbound by life, time, space, and most importantly, sanity, perceived and understood it all. He also picked his nose.

The mad programmer wiped a booger on his tunic and watched the show. Earth's thermal energy shot like water from a spinning top into the blinding dark, leaving the world chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero. Chemical reactions ceased as all molecules settled into something perilously close to a Bose-Einstein condensate. The most powerful bomb could no longer detonate, the vilest acids ignored the presence of the most potent bases. No more heat could be generated because no reaction could obtain the threshold energy necessary to work. Even nuclear reactions stopped in mid-swing. In short, everything froze for good.

Finally, after passing a nameless amount of time, after crossing a nameless amount of space (during which period Flash hummed tunelessly and composed a simple limerick about a nunnery), the frozen pebble that had been Old Earth dropped out of the lawless order of the void into a new universe the size of a dying photon. The seed universe blossomed to fit as the immense mass and volume of its new inhabitant, and real time began to pass in the universe.

Sigma's servers, thousands of individual quantum computers with diamonds for brains, instantly surged into life as time began for them again. Tiny electrical currents coursed from them into carefully controlled patterns across the surface of the world. At temperatures this close to absolute zero, no material provided the least resistance to electrical current; the frozen oceans, the shattered people, the endless cities worked as one big superconductor to carry the servers' signals. Yet despite of the lack of resistance, the network of servers successfully maintained order and superimposed patterns upon the flowing electrons.

In short, Diamond Earth, an unimaginably vast supercomputer network, was born inside Old Earth's frozen corpse. Outside, in the physical world, nothing moved but electrons; inside, the servers instantly built and sustained a virtual world that imitated Old Earth as it had been. They built Diamond Earth, a full-scale mockery of what the real world had once been. Flash sneered at it.

A few hundred thousand reploids, Sigma's chosen followers, found themselves painlessly reborn into the new world. Everyone else had frozen stone dead in the void. No organic life could possibly have survived the shock, and what robotic life could survive didn't know it without prior integration into Sigma's carefully designed servers.

And yet, inside Diamond Earth, Old Earth's biological life forms struggled to outlive their birthplace. With the instinct to survive they had honed over billions of years of evolution, every creature from virus to Man clung to the addiction of life by tooth and nail. Even as their physical bodies froze solid, their tiny, stubborn minds strove to perpetuate themselves in the planet-sized computer network that was Diamond Earth. Flash gazed closely at the little electrical patterns, freed of their physical brains, attempting to code themselves virtual bodies like the ones they had lost.

Most failed. From viruses to Man, less than 0.01 percent of all beings survived the first instant of existence in Diamond Earth. It was nothing short of mass genocide. Those creatures who survived emerged as twisted, malformed creatures into Sigma's symmetrical, preplanned reality.

The mad programmer's amber eyes inspected their coding and saw that it was nearly as complex as biological bodies had been, but also saw the million tiny glitches that any amateur programmer, however brilliant and persistent, must inevitably make. He shook his head as, all around the world, the creatures fell prey by the billions to both these flaws and to each other, to their own competitive natures. After the first minute, less than 1 percent of the original survivors remained.

Flash scowled as, in every server, Sigma's reploid followers took notice of the hapless former biologicals. After a few seconds' communication with their leader, the reploids marched forth to impose order on the chaos. Then he laughed as the former robots fell prey to the pathogens—bacteria, viruses, other parisites—that mankind had fought against for so long. The Plague Wars fell into full swing, cutting countless servers off from Sigma's rule and utterly destroying still more.

Four hundred years of worldwide history passed under Flash's ghostly gaze. Humanity survived the best of all the species, and refined itself into a close imitation of what it had once been. In many cases it even protected the lesser creatures, preserving some living remnants of what it remembered Old Earth to be. For his part, Sigma never, ever gave up, and found ever more ingenious ways to regain control of Diamond Earth. It was too much information for any living being to comprehend.

The dead programmer sighed when he had beheld it all. "It's still not over. All the data, the programs, the equations, the algorithms, and I still can't find the answer. One more piece, there's one more piece and I can't find it."

He looked down. "Hey, I can see my house from here!"

00000

In that house, Megaman Zero's last memory trickled into Iris Cainson's consciousness.

Zero felt nothing as his body froze and the world faded from his eyes. His software switched seamlessly from containment inside his metal brain to freedom out in the newly superconductive surface of the world. With no real limits to his movement, nor any sensory input to process, Zero's mind roamed like a sleepwalking man through the skies of Diamond Earth. He became a part of the clouds, the herds of computer minds without a stimulus to respond to.

Eventually, he happened across an eleven-year-old in the top room of a tower, holding a trio of metal Rods in the middle of a storm. And in that moment, Megaman Zero and Greenie Doppler became the infamous Zero Doppler.

_You came with me,_ Zero told the young woman in his arms. _Four hundred years we drifted together. Now you know what we are. What we did. What we have to do._

Iris Cainson blinked slowly, her eyelids heavy as lead, her processors thumping irregularly. _Forgive me, Zero. It's all too much, too sudden. Please, please let me sleep, or I'll crash._

_Then sleep. _The dark warrior scooped the brunette off her feet.

Cramer watched in near-invisible silence. Only seconds had passed since Zero had overpowered his superior officer, brushed aside his poisoned throwing stars, and grabbed the young woman. He beamed a message to his spotter. _Alia, are you seeing this?_

_Affirmative. Don't try to stop him yet. Reinforcements are on the way._

_Oh. Not the Haolin boys._

_Don't take that tone with me. They're the closest to you._

Zero turned around with Iris' tall, supple, unconscious form draped across his arms. He looked the hidden ninja straight in the eyes. "Lt. Conan Cramer. Where are Matt and Kai?"

The police warrior scowled underneath his mask and appeared to step out of thin air onto the floor. He stared levelly at the dark warrior. "They're on their way here. It'll be a dangerous situation for everyone if their sister isn't with you to greet them. Where is she, Doppler?"

The ninja muttered this like a schoolboy groaning over the prospect of detention, one hand rubbing his head, the other limp at his side. Concealed weapons far deadlier than poisoned throwing stars lay inches from either hand. Zero regarded the policeman in silence for a moment, then stepped towards him and handed over the sleeping brunette.

Eyes popping wide, Cramer took her from the blond's arms like a soldier catching a primed nuclear explosive. This action deprived the dark warrior of a potential hostage to keep the ninja at bay, but also burdened the policeman with well over a hundred pounds of woman and left Zero with his hands free. Conan cursed under his breath and sighed. Nagasaki, looking on through a haze of agony, grunted and grimaced.

Once he had passed off Iris' recumbent form, the blond finally opened his left hand. Cramer's gaze slid down to the thing that Zero had taken from Gutsman's crushing yellow grip. By this point, the blood data had evaporated away, leaving only a slight residue on the lock of silky, sky blue hair.

The young man plucked a yellow strand from his ponytail and used it to bind his dead girlfriend's hair together. Once he'd tied the piece into something resembling a bracelet, Zero summoned a belt pouch program and stored it inside. He replied in even tones to Cramer's last question.

"Malon will be avenged. I will need Megam—Kai and Matt to help." He glanced over at the ninja's burden. "But now I must guard this young lady. I am her champion and she has many enemies. You will assist me, Lieutenant."

Conan Cramer looked down at Iris' face. She didn't look grey any more, but he could feel her processors whirring like she'd taken a speed drug. "What did you do to her?"

"I showed her the truth about us."

The police warrior cocked an eyebrow. "You couldn't get by with a dozen roses and an empty promise like everyone else?"

Zero frowned, blinking slowly. "I'll go up with you to put her in bed."

"Whose?"

"Hers, Lieutenant," the blond replied, frowning more deeply. He gestured towards the stairs. "Step this way. Captain, guard the door."

Nagasaki, still slumped against the wall, groaned and twitched. He had mostly regenerated from his wounds by this point, but nothing keeps a man down like a knee strike through the codpiece. "------ - ------. Cramer, I authorize the use of deadly force if he touches her again."

The ninja sighed again. "Yessir. And if the situation arises I'll be sure to haunt him as a ghost after he kills me stone dead, sir."

"Sass me again and you'll be out on your ear, Cramer."

"Yessir." Shifting his youthful, feminine burden into a more comfortable position, Conan followed Zero up to Iris' bedchamber.

Left behind in the front hall, the pain slowly fading from his nether regions, Nagasaki gritted his teeth and glared at the wall. His hand strayed to the haft of his spear.

00000

Lt. Conan Cramer laid Iris on the bed and pulled the covers over her. He turned his back on the sleeping brunette and eyeballed Zero.

"Alia's called for Officer Cassellini, but she's at a wedding and can't get away. We don't have any other female warriors in the 71st, which creates a troubling situation."

The blond blinked, his eyelids moving heavily. "Iris is in danger. I will guard her."

"Here, in her bedroom? Alone? Miss Cainson's reputation would be ruined. You would kill her politically."

"Then you will stay. We will not be alone." He blinked again, slowly.

Cramer rubbed his chin and leaned against the wall for a moment. "Hmm. The Captain won't like this…but it's the best alternative. Very well." He sighed, beamed a brief update to Alia, and flipped over to land feet first on the ceiling. "I'll stay up here."

Zero sauntered to stand beside the door, a few feet from the newly concealed, upside down police warrior. His armor sucked in the light from the curtained, one-way windows on two walls of the brunette's boudoir.

For a while, they stood guard in silence. Voices echoed weakly from the bottom floor, the muted words indecipherable to either warrior, but the lieutenant recognized the Haolin boys' tenor tones. They spoke only very briefly before Nagasaki's base cut them off, and proceeded into a monologue of its own. Alia's voice beamed into the ninja's head again, and he responded in kind.

Meanwhile, Zero Doppler's gaze strayed to the sleeping beauty. Lt. Cramer watched as the crystal blues glazed over. He put his spotter on hold.

"You're worried about her."

"Yes. She has many enemies," the young man blurted, his eyes popping wide again.

Another moment passed. The dark warrior's form remained totally stiff, but his eyelids started to droop. Cramer coughed.

"You busted up Cpt. Nagasaki."

"Yes."

Seconds ticked away on Iris' ornamental wall clock.

"Why?"

"He tried to stop me." Zero's voice came in a monotone. "She needed to know. We helped Sigma."

More seconds…

"How?"

"Before the world died. Great Death. I didn't let X come with me. I made them let me go alone. X wouldn't have failed." The blond could have been a wax figure, but for the light-eating armor.

"Failed what?"

"Stopping. The Final. Weapon. Great Death. Vengeance. I helped him. Sigma." His eyes snapped open. "Sigma must die."

Lt. Conan Cramer had stared down death, or at least dead people and people who wanted to make him dead, many times. He had lost comrades in battle, and turned from their rent corpses to annihilate their killers. He himself had nearly died, more than once. He was a lieutenant in the most militaristic branch of Stormy Hill's police force.

Lt. Conan Cramer cringed at the sight of Doppler's glassy eyes, set in that ghastly pale face, all framed against that stark sable armor. The corn blond ponytail reminded him of his great-grandfather's burial shroud, from a time his family had gone to pay homage to the man. He'd been five, and the figure on the slab had been so very still. Just like Doppler.

"Maverick Hunter, I'm. Hidden. Come out, get Z-Saber. Get armor. Get kill. Kill. Remember it, tells me while he kills. Remembers, tells me. Tells me I helped Sigma. Tells me, tell Iris. We kill Sigma. Die."

Zero's voice faltered but his eyes remained wide and glossy as they darkened to blacker than black. Standing like a sentinel at the gates of Hell, the warrior fell asleep.

Cramer sat very quietly on the ceiling and refrained from any sudden motions. Like breathing.

00000

Alone in the Decorative Workshop, lying in the open coffin, a dead man opened his light amber eyes and grinned toothily at the ceiling. His fingers, stiff with rigor mortis, caressed the heartbeat of the server's operating system.

"0100100001100101011011000110110001101111001000000101011101101111011100100110110001100100. Hello, world."


	24. Chapter 23: Vengeance

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Vengeance**

Flash emerged from his coffin and stood, looking around the Decorative Workshop with a smile. Hordes of his small to mid-size inventions lay imprisoned in the display cases or hung suspended from the ceiling. Bug like, clawed creatures stood immobile next to miniatures of fighter jets and stylized, armored soldiers. Now that the airship's secret was known, a scale model of the _Incorrigible_ hung from the ceiling. Other, more innocuous or abstract inventions, like the interactive freestanding rainbow pattern, adorned shelf after shelf in the cluttered chamber.

The brunet programmer picked his broken TC up off a memorial table and stood for a minute, turning the device over and over in his hands. It shifted and morphed in his light-fingered grasp, growing into a hovering, multiscreen display and shrinking back into a pocket sized monitor with a collapsible keyboard.

Flash smiled at it. Then he ambled over to the door, smiled at it a moment, and appeared on the other side without bothering to walk through.

Strolling aimlessly down the hallway, the hacker smiled at the decorations he'd variously designed or customized to fit. Familiar voices echoed from the Plum Reception Room. Flash wandered in that direction.

00000

Kai and Matt had seen the scorch marks and the residues of their sister's blood. They had found Flash's corpse where it lay slumped over his broken teleconsole. They had scoured the most violent ghettoes of the city all night long, searching for so much as a trace of where Malon had gone.

They had failed.

Cpt. Yamato Nagasaki met them at the door to the Cainson mansion and ordered them inside, into the ground floor reception room. Only a few minutes had passed since Zero had entered the house; although his bruises had healed and his armor had self-repaired, the captain walked a little stiffly still. The brothers stood before him, watching his scarred countenance and waiting for him to speak.

Yamato told them the final truth.

Matt covered his face with his hands and sat heavily into a chair. His shoulders shook up and down as he began to sob.

Kai's entire frame went slack. "She's…dead?"

The silver warrior nodded, his expression cut from granite. "That's what Doppler said. He had a light blue lock of hair with him. Was that her real hair color?"

"Yes sir." Kai's fists clenched and unclenched. He opened his mouth to say something more, but Nagasaki forestalled him.

"Before he and Lt. Cramer took Miss Cainson upstairs, Doppler said he planned to get revenge. He said he needed you two to help. W—"

Kai snarled. "------ right we're gonna give some payback to the scum that—"

"Officers Haolin, stand to attention." The police captain's rich bass chopped through Kai's tenor. Two sets of azure full plate clanked as the young man and his brother obeyed, the latter stifling his sobs into inaudible sniffles. Nagasaki looked from Matt's wet hazel eyes to Kai's narrowed green as he began to speak.

"Officers Haolin, were you here to serve during the Goliath Street Riot?"

The elder Haolin blinked. "No sir. We were re—"

Nagasaki spoke over him again. "Were you here when the mob got ugly? Were you here when the shooting and the fires started? Were you here when the people were calling for blood, anyone's blood, all because of a few crazed cultists working them up? Were you here when innocent people were dying in the streets at the hands of their own neighbors? No, you weren't. Listen when I tell you what happened, Officers.

"We tried to stop that riot. The 71st, the 33rd, the 40th, and all the other uniforms we could get on the streets. It was the worst thing anyone had seen in twenty years, since the Dakota bombings and the riots after that. They had blades, guns, grenades. They even had gear to stop our stun viruses. We could barely contain them.

"And it was a trap. The mob was bait to draw us to Goliath Street. It was the ghetto of the ghetto, and cultist hackers had seized illegal domain administratorship of the street without anyone noticing. Once all the police units had entered the action, the cultists started hypnohacking, calling up butcher programs, walling us in…it was a death trap. We lost eighty-three civilians and fifteen of our own.

"Lt. Picard lost his entire squad that night, killed right in front of him while a cultist held him pinned to a wall with a short spear in his belly. Lt. Sorores lost her own sister, sitting beside her at HQ, in the flame war between our hackers and theirs. No one, no one deserved revenge more than us and ours did after Goliath Street. We wanted to hunt down and kill every last one of the scumbags that set up that riot. We even know some of their names…Antoine ten Haaft, Zuko Yumeichi, someone called the Lady—" the captain shook his head. "We don't have proof, but we know they're involved. We could take them down for good if we tried.

"But that's not the way it works. We're officers of the Law. We swore to protect and to serve. If the city, if the law, needs us to fight to protect it, then we do it. But we can't go out there looking for blood, not while we wear this badge and this uniform. A dirty cop, a cop that lets the law go so he can have his way, is worse for the city than a cultist. Officers Haolin, if you're going out there for revenge you can do it without those badges and those capes. Understood?"

The brothers saluted simultaneously, their faces rigid. "Yes, s—"

Flash appeared from thin air in the middle of the room. "Hi guys! Oh, what a sharp sword you have, Cappy."

Nagasaki held his weapon to the man's throat. "Haolins, cover him."

Flash glanced to either side as the X Force's arm cannons hummed an ascending note. "Wow. You guys sure are fast."

The police captain grunted. "Tell us who you really are, how you got in here, and why."

Before Flash could reply, Alia's voice sounded in her commanding officer's head. _Sir, I checked the video feeds. Cainson's corpse just got up and started moving. That's him in front of you now, sir._

The programmer grinned. "Catches on quick, doesn't she?"

_And he's intercepting our transmissions like he did before, Captain._

"Lies. I'm doing it much better this time. Hõla, Matt, Kai. I know where to find your sister's killer."

Kai glanced from his commanding officer to the hacker in his tunic of many clashing colors. Matt caught his eye, and the two exchanged a look.

Nagasaki stared into the gangly programmer's light amber eyes. "Stand down but stay sharp, men."

The humming of the X Force's weapons slowly faded, and the silversteel plated policeman sheathed his sword. He grunted again and folded his arms. "Why'd you fake death like that? Did you like watching your little sister cry?"

Flash's smile faded a little. "It's not like that. I really died, Cappy. I'm not alive now. Here, watch this."

The programmer flicked his fingers, calling up a scalpel. Nagasaki unfolded his arms, but the brunet had already lifted his tunic and slit open his belly. Too late, the captain seized Flash's wrist.

Matt gawked at the deep slash across the hacker's stomach. No data bled forth, and the guts inside glittered in the way only diamonds can.

Kai stared as well. Flash's torso held no processors, no arteries nor veins through which data could stream to or from the rest of his body. The man's insides were one big virtual drive, a vessel containing vast amounts of quantum storage space for data.

"While I was a ghost, I looked at the OS," the programmer said, gazing with a smile at his self-inflicted disembowelment. "I thought, hey, if I know enough I can bring my parents back. It's all data, spinning numbers, our world. I've always known that. I thought if I could find the right numbers I could bring them back. I learned I was wrong."

He sighed. Nagasaki still held his wrist. The police warriors stood staring, various expressions frozen on their faces. Flash continued his monologue, smiling still.

"I went sane. I finally saw through the lie that Diamond Earth is, all the way through, not just partway like in the dreams that I've had since my christening. I saw the Great Death, Sigma's genocide. I saw the history of a whole world from the outside. It was so much data, so beautiful! And now I have almost everything I need.

"I realized I couldn't do anything, floating around looking. Interaction with the physical multiverse requires a body made of more than spirit. But nothing alive could handle the amount of information I had swallowed; besides, my only link to this reality was my dead body. I couldn't come back to life and possibly retain all the data, not even in compressed form, but I couldn't do anything with the data if I didn't have a body. So I compromised.

"Now this corpse you see here holds all the programs and data and memories I need, while my spirit does all the processing. I suspect, from what I've seen of the universe, that there is a God. I think he's laughing at me now, with my puppet corpse. I can't even feel pain anymore.

"I wish I hadn't made Iris so sad. I watched a lot of bad things when I was a ghost, but I didn't make them happen. But I made her cry and I had to see it. She'll be happy to see me when she wakes up, though.

"Oh, Sissy is safe up there with Zero, by the way. Just don't try to wake him up. Bad idea. Anyway, while they're asleep, we're going to be busy, Cappy."

Kai found his voice, although it had apparently gotten itself beaten up and robbed while it had been lost. It came out as nothing more than a squeak. "What?"

"We have to get ready to fight. She killed me and Lon-Lon and made Sissy cry." The undead programmer smacked a fist into his palm and looked up into their faces. "She. Celes. Celestia Kyuubit, the Lady, whatever you wanna call her. She's been behind it all for months, all the hurting and the killing. She has to die."

Matt gaped, his brother's face went blank, and Nagasaki frowned.

Kai made a noise in his throat. "Zero's old girlfriend. Figures."

His little brother punched him on the shoulder. "Don't say things like that."

Their captain made a little motion, and both young men settled down. "I think it's time you told us what you know, sir."

Flash blinked and cleared his throat. "Well, okay.

"                            —"

Both Haolins had fallen to the floor, twitching and whimpering, by the time Captain Nagasaki could clap his hand over the undead programmer's mouth. The old warrior's face was grey. "One more syllable, sir, and I'll book you for three charges of assaulting an officer."

Flash blinked, wrinkling his forehead. The silver warrior removed his hand a few inches, and the brunet spoke in normal words again. "Oh…you don't really want to hear what I know?"

"No one wants to hear what you know, sir. No one can handle all that. Officers, get up and dump your memory of the last few seconds."

The brothers stood, their processors spasming under the overload of raw machine language. They obeyed their captain's order and their faces cleared. The X Force glared at the undead programmer.

"Don't do that!" Matt yelled.

"Tell us—the Captain about this Kyuubit girl right now. In English," Kai added.

Nagasaki nodded, frowning. Flash shrugged and told the story from the beginning.

00000

Zero awoke to a faceful of carpet. He blinked and rolled onto his back, blinking again in the cold gray light of dawn that poured in through the windows. The noise of the street filtered in through the walls, dampened to the point that the warrior couldn't distinguish individual voices.

His gaze wandered dully to the mahogany clock on the wall. It read 5:45 AM, making it roughly twenty-one hours since he had forcibly transmitted his memories into Iris' virtual drive. At that point the blond blinked and refocused on something in the corner of his eye.

He turned his head to look at Iris, her brows creasing and her lips parted slightly as she leaned over him. She had wound up her hair in an elaborate braid and exchanged her previous mourning outfit for another one of equal severity. "Zero. Are you all right?"

The young man's gaze flicked around the chamber, or those parts of it he could see from flat on his back. He rubbed his forehead. "Um. Why am I in your bedroom?"

"I don't know for sure, but when I first woke up you were standing by the door in the same black armor you had yesterday. You were asleep standing up, and I didn't want to wake you, but then you fell over and rebooted and woke up on your own. How do you feel?"

Zero's eyes widened, and his hand fell limply against his cheek. "I remember now," he whispered. "Everything. Iris. Stay away from me. I'm not who you think I am."

"I know exactly who you are," the brunette replied, her expression softening further. "You told me, remember? All about Megaman Zero and Iris Thorne. W—"

"No. I haven't told you everything, not yet." He pushed himself up to his elbows, and the brunette knelt back to give him room. "Ce—Flash's and Malon's killer, s—he captured me and her together. He tortured us. He'd taken my weapons and armor and powers. I couldn't stop him. He killed Malon. I couldn't stop him.

"Then I lost control. Something else took over, something that's been there since before the Great Death. Maverick Hunter. It gave me the black armor and the Z-Saber, the speed and strength. I fought, slaughtered, everyone. Everyone in my way, Mavericks. And it felt good. I wanted to keep killing, keep killing the Mavericks." He scowled at the brunette. "I remember now. On Occuman's rooftop, when you left, Malon told me she was leaving me. I let out the Maverick Hunter to punish her. I would have killed her myself. That's all I'm good for, is punishing. Avenging. That's why I have this black armor. It suits me." He gestured at himself and sneered.

Iris smiled, very slightly. "Look in the mirror, Zero." She pointed to a full length vanity mirror hanging on the wall. He blinked, still scowling, but stood up and did as she asked.

Scarlet plate mail with white highlights, all laid overtop the supple black bodysuit, covered his body exactly as it had for seven long years. He drew his kite shield from its place on his back, its red and white surface glinting in the cold light from the windows. The crimson warrior stared at the shield's crest while Iris spoke.

"When you rebooted, your armor changed back. I think it does suit you, now."

Zero shook his head. "This is impossible. This was deleted from my systems. The Maverick Hunter only gave me the black armor. And my shield—"

"Work of beauty, isn't it?" a tenor voice laughed in the crimson warrior's ear. "It's about time I put the Doppler house insignia on that thing."

Iris gasped and looked around, but she couldn't see her brother anywhere. "Flash? Is that you? You're alive?"

"Yep," his voice came out of thin air. "House intercom. You know, Zero's backhacking programs are nowhere near as scary as he always makes them sound, and you two were asleep for so long, so I got in his head and changed that nasty black armor back to the cool red stuff. Oh, and I made it way better than ever.

"Anyway, come on downstairs already, you three. Everybody's waiting, nappytime's over. It's time to kick some cultist trash out of this town!"

Cramer dropped out of concealment, bowed to Miss Cainson, and opened the door without a word. Iris smiled at her champion and took his hand, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief.

"It's Flash; no one else talks like that. It'll be all right. I don't know everything, but I know we can trust in Flash. And in you. When it comes time, I trust you to do the right thing."

She tried to lead the crimson warrior out of the room. His expression hardened. "If I find Malon's killer, I'll become the Hunter again. He wants vengeance."

Iris turned to face him squarely and clasped his right hand in both of hers. "Maybe you believe that, but I know better, Zero. Malon wouldn't want you to lose yourself in vengeance. Flash and I don't want to lose you, period. Whatever happens, I trust that you won't give in to the Hunter, because you know how much that betrayal would hurt us."

She released his hand and let her arms drop to her sides, her amber eyes fixed on his crystal blues. Her voice shook a little now. "Please tell me I'm right. Tell me you'll stay with us. This world needs you. I need you."

Zero turned his head from her, staring at nothing. His face twitched as he noticed his reflection, his angular visage, in the mirror. He looked back at the brunette, flicked the Z-Saber from its sheath, and stabbed it deep into the floor between him and Iris. Kneeling with both hands on the weapon's hilt, the young man bowed his head. His blond ponytail fell to one side, glimmering in the white light of the beam saber.

"Iris Cainson, as your champion and friend, I vow to defend you from your enemies. I vow to defend you even against myself. I extend the same vow to your brother, Flash Cainson. Long live your House."

"I accept your vow, Zero Doppler. Rise and stay by my side." The young lady smiled, but only a little.

"Always." Zero stood, sheathed his weapon, and strode immediately out of the woman's boudoir. Iris followed him out, her smooth pace and long skirts turning a simple walk into a regal glide. As they entered the hallway, the blond half-turned and paused for a step; the brunette took his elbow in her hand, and the youths walked shoulder to shoulder towards the new day.

Cramer glanced at the hole in the floor left by the warrior's beam saber and sighed. "What a couple of loons," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that," Flash's voice replied from the wall.

The ninja nodded. "I know. In this kind of situation, I think you're saner than either one of them, sir." He sighed again and paced along after the lady and her champion.


	25. Chapter 24: Prelude

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Prelude**

Celestia closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her forehead. Her fox tail whiffled from side to side. "You're telling me that the perimeter defenses, the lockdown protocols, and the teleport protocols are all still out of order? Tell me, scum, what have your people fixed?"

"Er, we cleaned out the virus that was causing the damage. And, and the intercom is online again, Lady." Java, one of the remaining programmers, cowered.

Celestia blinked slowly and grinned. "Yes. Excellent point."

Still grinning, she growled, calling up her whip program. Its nine tails sprouted little nodules and barbs and sought automatically for human flesh. "Open a general line across the compound and say what I tell you to say, scum."

Java's baritone voice echoed shakily through the underground fortress. Cultists in every room paused in their labors to listen.

"General message to all personnel AARGH! The Lady wishes to thank AIIEE you all for your speedy work repairing the damAAAGEAAERGH from the Zero Nightmare and urges OH PLEASE NO anyone who feels like a break tooOOAIIIEE come to her quarters to play, as she is FEEAEARH feeling bored IT BURNS PLEASE NOOO!"

When he had finished, Celestia stood back, licking the blood data off one of her whip's many tails. As her tongue slid slowly along its smooth, sinuous length, the weapon curled around and caressed her delicate face. The vixen giggled.

Someone knocked at the portal to her sanctum. The rosy warrior beckoned, and the door swung open to allow Vile inside. He entered with his typical, whisper quiet gait, glancing momentarily at the programmer lying huddled and whimpering on the floor.

Celestia laughed as the whip's tendrils reached for the heavily armored warrior. She flicked her wrist, and the weapon coiled back and away from him. "Somehow I don't think you've come to accept my invitation to play, Vile. Do you have something to report?"

"Yes, Lady. You asked me to work with the surveillance teams and tell you if any trouble arose. It is doing so. Our enemies are on the move, Lady." He stood with his hands clasped behind him, his back held stiff and his feet placed exactly as far apart as his shoulders. His voice echoed sonorously from within the all-encompassing helmet.

"How soon?" Celestia snapped, smile disappearing.

"They will attack within the hour." He handed the rosy warrior a data chip. "The full report, Lady."

Celestia scowled as she slid it into her office TC. Sitting down in front of the screen, she waved a hand at the man bleeding on the floor. "Haul this wretch out of my sight and get a team of programmers to prepare the Spawn. This is the showdown, Vile. It's long since time I took control of this dung heap of a city."

The violet warrior inclined his head. "Yes, Lady. I will guard the Spawn until it is ready."

"Do so," she replied. Her fingers tapped furiously on the keyboard._"Summons to all loyal followers of Sigma, the Genesis King…"_

Vile left, dragging Java behind him. A couple of minutes passed as Celestia typed. At one point her ears turned towards something else in the room, like furry, pointy satellite dishes trying to track a signal. The vixen finished the message and sent it, then swiveled her chair around to face the intruder into her sanctum.

"I see you hacked into the interdomain teleport router. Well done, scum."

"I'll thank you to call me by my proper title, Kyuubit," the old man said from the shadows. "I, unlike you, earned my honorific legitimately, and after all you were the one to call me to this place."

The strawberry blonde tossed her silky hair. "So here you are, Doctor. Do you know what that slime has done to my headquarters?"

"Yes, the Zero Nightmare. You ought to have seen it coming, Kyuubit."

"Never mind that. Can you fix the damage or not?"

"I already am, or rather, my programs have already started the job. Everything but the internal teleport protocols and a few cosmetic details will be ready by the time Zero and his allies make their move. More importantly, I will be able to fight Flash Cainson in the flame war and help protect the Spawn."

"Flash? My soldiers already killed him!"

"Come now, Kyuubit. You of all people ought to have deduced from the movements of the police that he is not dead. I, naturally, found out through hacking, but you must indeed be slipping to make such a miscalculation. "

"Ugh. Stop talking at me and get to work already." Celestia put a hand to her head and waved him away with the other.

"That would be my reason for coming here. However, I believe that you will be wanting this from me first." The Doctor walked up and laid a data chip on the Lady's desk, then withdrew. "It's the coding for a virus, a variant of the Zero Nightmare that I cooked up. I call it the Null Dream. It's specifically designed to work on that wonderful boy we both love to hate."

Celestia glanced up sharply. "Hilarious. You found out the childhood nickname the pus-eating, ------, ------ - ------ from the orphanage gave me and attached it to a weapon I would have to use. I bet you think you're very clever."

"Yes I do. Ohohoho," the old man laughed deep in his chest. "Hohohoho. Now I'll be off. I've got to set up my office by the Spawn. Lots of work to do, Kyuubit."

00000

Zero strode swiftly down the stairs. Iris glided alongside, her black skirts swishing softly in sync with his metallic footfalls. She ignored the banister, holding instead to her champion's elbow.

"Lt. Cramer, how many police units has Yamato gathered?" the brunette half-turned to address the ninja policeman following behind them.

"Five Elite brigades and thirty street cops, Miss."

Zero shook his head, frowning. "Five brigades and thirty gumshoes. Too many. Someone will leak. The enemy will know we're coming."

"It's not enough, either." Iris rubbed her arm with a satin-gloved hand. "She'll call out all the reserves. This could escalate into a civil war, and we have less than eighty warriors on our side."

"The Captain got all the men he could trust, Miss," Cramer replied. "Colonel Stebbins, the Elite Brigades' high commander, can't be reached; given the situation, that means he's either hiding from the cultists, or he's joined them. A lot of other dirty or cowardly cops are staying out of this too. But we're lucky in one thing. He must have found out what we're planning, but that Sigma worshipper General Wolfe in the military isn't giving us any trouble."

Zero glanced at Iris. He'd seen her dance with the tall, heavily built old warrior man in question at the fateful ball less than thirty-six hours ago. She'd left the man pale and shaking in her wake. How long before him had she awoken, and whom had she called in the interval? How much power did this beautiful young woman really hold?

She returned his searching glance with a sunny smile. "That's good to hear, isn't it, Zero? Maybe the General will even find it in his heart to help us."

Flash's voice came to them through the house intercom. "Hurry along, l'il chilluns, we're rearin' to go and Celestia's not gonna wait forever."

Zero's head jerked up and he stopped in his tracks. His voice came out colder and harder than a glacier. "How do you know it's her?"

Iris stopped as well, ending up a step or two below her champion. Her hand dropped from his elbow and her eyes strayed across the bottom edge of the wall, away from Zero's face.

He glared narrowly at the brunette. "You knew too. How long."

"IwasadeadghostandIsawthehistoryoftheworldandIremebereverythingandIunpackedthedataandtoldthepolice—" Flash gibbered nonstop.

"I've known the regional cultist leader was a young woman since before you came back from college. I guessed who she might be after I saw the way you avoided describing Malon's killer. Honestly, I didn't know for sure until now." She glanced briefly up at his stiff, angular visage. "It's not your fault, Zero. She chose to become what she is."

"—addtwoeggwhitesandbeatforoneminute." The undead programmer wound down. "Fluffy."

"It is my fault. My virus drove her mad. Now I'm going to fix the problem." He started down the stairs again, brushing by the brunette without another look.

Iris dropped a hand to his shoulder. The crimson warrior stopped, his expression stony, and stared straight forwards as the young woman spoke. "I don't know everything that happened, but I don't have to, Zero, because I know you. I know that you never meant to hurt her. You loved and helped her, more than anyone else ever could."

"The result is the same. I destroyed her life."

"It's not the same at all," the brunette's voice rose. She clenched her jaw a moment and continued more quietly. "Your heart is pure for as long as you do the right thing, as best as you know how. I've never known anyone so devoted to doing the right thing as you are, Zero. Please don't go into this fight thinking that you're somehow to blame for events you couldn't control."

He stood immobile for several seconds. Then, without turning his head, the young man offered Iris his arm once more. Shifting her gaze from his stiff expression, she took it and they proceeded down the stairs again, more quickly than before. The brunette lengthened her stride to keep up with him.

Zero spoke to the air as they descended. "Are the police ready to strike?"

"Yep. I gave them the Cultist HQ's schematics and they went nuts for joy. They never woulda found where it is without my sweet self to help. Preeoow. Just waitin' on you, woo hoo hooo."

Cramer nodded. "It's true, sir. We have the plan of attack all figured out, thanks to Mr. Cainson."

Iris lifted her chin. "Flash, where are you? I want to be able to see what's going on."

"I'm in the basement with Kat. Your bodyguard is tres hottie."

At this point the lady and her champion had reached the first floor. The front staircase ended in the hallway adjacent to the front gate. The door to the spiral stair leading to Flash's basement workshops stood at the other end of the hall, forty-five feet away.

Iris looked down the hallway and back to Zero, her hands falling to her sides as she looked in his crystal blue eyes. His expression softened slightly as he returned her gaze.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure Celestia dies this time. Then you'll be safe."

Iris nodded, her shoulders tense, and clasped her hands in front of her chest as she began to turn away. Looking at her in that pose, Zero's eyes flickered and he caught her up in a sudden embrace. His plate mail vanishing in an instant, the warrior held her close and caressed her hair.

Then they both froze, the blond's expression blank and the brunette's amber eyes wide. Flash's voice came very quietly in the young man's head._ I deactivated the Zero Nightmare. You can kiss anyone you like now. _

Iris shivered all over, inhaling a heady, close-range dose of Zero's pheromones. The blond warrior suddenly released her and stepped away, and the young woman stumbled back to lean against a wall.

Zero shook his head violently, setting his loose yellow mane dancing around him. "I'm sorry. I mistook you for your namesake. Megaman Zero's memories are still fresh in me."

While the young woman gaped at him, breathing heavily, the blond reached for his hair in order to reactivate his scarlet plate mail. He stopped short as the room dissolved around him.

00000

Flash and Zero stood a few feet apart, facing one another atop a dark expanse of grass. Wind blew shrilly past them, ruffling the undead programmer's upstanding brown hair and the crimson warrior's golden ponytail. Above them, grey clouds raced against an indigo sky, growing and fading as if in a fast motion replay.

"How dare you!" Flash screamed. "How dare you jerk my sister around like that!"

He stopped, shaking all over. Zero blinked and took a step back.

"Where are we? Is this a hypnohack? Flash, my systems will—"

"Not even your backhacking systems can save you from me, you ------ - ------for(------)pig-doging------—"

As he cursed in the language of programming, lightning crackled from the racing clouds and struck the crimson warrior again and again, throwing him bodily across the grass. His armor glowed in resistance to the deadly bolts, but nevertheless electrical burns flashed across Zero's body and into his processors. Flash stopped cursing and blinked across the distance between them to shove his finger in the blond's face. "I won't let you hurt Sissy like that! How could you do that?! What's wrong with you? I'll hack you again and castrate you from the inside out!"

"I—what, what is this about?" Zero gritted his teeth, eyes wide as his body spasmed in the aftereffects of the lightning.

"It's about you playing silly buggers with my little sister, you filthy mother of mushrooms. You fetid duck, you can't pick my sister up and drop her whenever you frickin' want. She loves you, you shiftless wad of typos, and if you're not gonna love her back you gotta stop leading her on. You treat her like a lady or I'll chop off some significant digits. Capische?!"

With that, the undead programmer vanished from the scene. Zero blinked…

00000

…and stood in the front hall of the Cainson mansion once again. Barely a second had passed in the outside world. He put out a hand and steadied himself on the wall.

_I understand._ Zero stared at nothing and beamed a message to Flash._I'm sorry._

He turned to Iris, and the young woman gazed back at him, her forehead creased. She forced her breathing to slow and her hands to stop fidgeting. "Are you all right? You look a little pale…"

He bowed deeply to her. "Iris, I must apologize. I have been an…insensitive boor. I cannot be yours. I am deeply sorry for the pain I've caused you. I won't trouble you again."

Iris opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and looked away, nodding silently as her shoulders slumped. Her champion opened the heavy front door and left without a word, closing the portal swiftly and quietly behind him. Cramer slipped out after him, leaving the brunette alone in her mansion's vast front hallway.

While the young woman turned and walked slowly towards the spiral staircase, the blond reactivated his scarlet plate mail and dashed over to the police hovercar waiting in the driveway. The ruddy light of dawn colored his yellow hair a shadowy orange and gleamed dully off his beam saber's glossy black sheath. Clouds massed over the horizon, moving swiftly in the perennial wind that swept the crowded city streets. People made their way past the Cainson mansion just as they did every other day of the week, though the crimson warrior noticed more policemen on guard than usual. Not Elites, for the most part, although one or two bore the marks of much battle in their stance and expressions.

Zero jumped into the police hovercar with Cramer, and it took off with an antigrav whisper. As the vehicle rose above the streets and their traffic, the blond got another aerial look at his new home. Stormy Hill, city of the plutocrats, a city shot through with the Cult of Sigma like syphilis through a brothel.

The driver pushed forwards on the throttle, and the vehicle sped forwards at upwards of eighty miles an hour. Zero beamed his thoughts towards the brunet hacker sitting at his teleconsole far below.

_Flash. I need schematics of the target. I also need to know my part in the mission._

_No worries. _The undead programmer's voice lilted like he was grinning._ I put it all in your virtual drive while you were sleeping. Pick your nose._

Zero blinked. _Is that a command key?_

_Sure, let's go with that._

The crimson warrior frowned and did as he was told, drawing a sideways glance from Cramer. Flash laughed hysterically.

_Psych! You're picking your nose in public, ahahaha! Okay, okay, here's the real code: Y4722:dds3&3kx1.cmd._

Zero blinked again and sat back, focusing on the image suddenly superimposed on his consciousness.

He saw the chop shop first, a small, dingy, boxlike building located in one of Stormy Hill's ghetto districts. People and automobiles slunk into the place, people walked out again, and compressed data files left in shipments large and small. The place seemed practically built out of glitches, entire segments of wall sometimes changing color or disappearing altogether. Then the warrior's viewpoint shifted, and the dirty city street and chop shop faded to transparency to reveal a fortress like Zero had never seen.

It occupied five levels of basement below the ghetto chop shop. Four foot thick grey barriers, made of the same material as Flash's impenetrable hollow sphere programs, encased the bunker like a coffin. No physical force short of a nuclear explosion could pierce such a shield; sound, light, beamed transmissions all stopped dead at the material. In fact, veteran architects and laymen alike commonly called the material "deadstone."

_But there's always a way in with me around. _Flash's voice came in the planted memory along with the images. _You'll be part of the infiltration group to take out their secret weapon. I'll 'port you and Cappy's boys in as close as I can, but I gotta, show you the jengojammin' path through the fortress you and Cappy's boys will be taking once I do, and backup path in case their router throws you somewhere else or something else goes manky. Watch close, there won't be much time to process all this._

With that, five stories' worth of holding cells, offices, workshops, labs, armories, torture rooms, and bloody altars flitted past Zero's mind's eye. The crimson warrior's hands twitched as the implanted memory blended with that of the butchery he'd performed in those rooms. Even the Zero Nightmare had done its bit, visibly destroying or disabling much of the fortress' defensive programs.

Still, Celestia had an entire city seeded with her supporters; after all his bloody work, she still commanded hundreds of highly trained warriors and dozens of programmers ready to die for Sigma, the Genesis King. In addition, Zero's long sleep had given the vixen's lackeys time to repair their fortress.

Flash's voice and the fleeting images finished with the planned routes of entry and moved on to other details. _Alia's peeps'll be spotting for you inside. I'll be taking on the enemy programmers and working up the frontal invasion with most of the coppers, and the rest'll stay back in reserve. We're gonna hit them so hard their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and third cousins twice removed will feel it! It'll be fun!_

Zero tuned the voice out, clenched his fists, and closed his eyes, drawing another look from Cramer.

"Are you going to be able to fight, sir? This is going to be a hot situation."

The crimson warrior grimaced. "It will be when I get there."


	26. Chapter 25: Dream

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Dream**

Cpt. Yamato Nagasaki hovered on the updrafts, his angelic golden wings curled like sails to catch the wind. Held tightly in his hands, the warrior's eleven-foot ironwood spear crackled and occasionally threw sparks off into the air. He looked over his shoulder, watching the black shapes on the horizon grow. Above both the captain and the shapes, the silent grey clouds massed and traded flashing, soundless blue-white bolts of lightning.

Nagasaki turned his gaze to Stormy Hill below, in all its neon-and-grime covered glory. His glittering yellow eyes followed a police hovercar zooming low over one of the shabbier, glitchier districts of the city. Alia's voice came into the scarred old police warrior's head.

_Zero is on his way with Cramer, sir. Everyone else is in position._

_Mwa hahaha hah! Starscream wing, strike!_ Flash cackled with manic glee.

Nagasaki's expression stiffened. He looked over his shoulder again, and saw the black shapes growing larger as they rocketed towards him. _Cainson! Don't strike until the chop shop has been evacuated!_

_Ummm… _Alia's voice broke into her superior officer's thoughts. _Captain, our instruments are showing that the civilians within a hundred yard radius have all been teleported away._

The old policeman folded his wings and dove several stories through the air. Overhead, a glossy black trio of fighter jets with sleek, sinuous frames cut through the air with a bone-shaking roar. The police captain leveled out again and grunted, clutching his electrically charged spear like a life raft.

"Crazy hacker and his blasted programs." _Alia, tell all teams to stand by. Looks like it's time to start._

00000

Iris leaned heavily on Flash's armchair, her chin resting on its cushioned back, her brows furrowed. While the undead programmer's fingers pounded the keyboard of his office's teleconsole, his sister stared intently at one of its seven monitors. Officer Katarina Casselini crouched to one side, similarly glued to the live video feeds of what was about to be the biggest battle in Stormy Hill's recent history.

Onscreen, the lead Starscream fighter dove towards the city below, followed quickly by its identical twins. Each in turn delivered a pair of fat, stubby missiles into the air and veered upwards. Flash grinned and Iris clutched the chair, eyes wide, as the payload of bombs rocketed in towards the chop shop.

Gunfire blazed from somewhere offscreen, immersing the bombs in a torrent of bullets and shrapnel. The teleconsole's surround sound speakers delivered with perfect fidelity (but mercifully reduced volume) the deafening explosions as one, two, three and four of the Flash's customized missiles detonated prematurely in the storm of lead. Kat smirked as the remaining two bombs shot through the smoke and flames into their target.

The chop shop blew apart like a house of cards, its dingy ground floor and cavelike little basement exploding in a blast of car parts and cheap masonry. A hot chunk of metal whizzed past the screen, and the two women flinched back, the brunette clutching her brother's chair and the beige blond with her cat ears flattened to her head. Flash only blinked, busy watching another monitor full of blinking data tables.

Before the dust from the first raid had settled, the brunet hacker's fighter jets returned at a lower elevation for a second. Another couple of video feeds appeared onscreen, showing the flak turrets as they popped up to bathe the lead Starscream in bullets. Riddled with holes, the dark jet pinwheeled in towards the ground.

Far faster, however, the other two aircraft's missiles sped in towards the remains of the chop shop. This time the force of the blast ripped apart the building's blackrock foundation, exposing the deadstone barrier beneath.

While its twins ascended again, the lead jet spiraled like a wounded bird into the rubble-strewn street below. In the last instant before impact, the program blurred and transformed. There was a tremendous crunch and crash of metal and stone, at the end of which Starscream Alpha stood up uninjured.

"Long live the Autobots!" Flash roared, his face a manic rictus. "Take out those turrets!"

Its metal hide gleaming greasily, the humanoid robot unfolded one arm and unleashed a hail of autocannon fire on the guns in question. One of them angled down to direct its fire at the robot, and Starscream Prime lifted its other arm. The entire limb whined and glowed, then unleashed a massive energy wave at the threat.

It hit dead on, and the turret melted and vaporized without so much as a whimper. Once the other fighter jets had transformed and landed, the cultists HQ's outer turret defenses became nothing but a memory.

Flash bared his teeth and nodded like a deranged bobblehead doll, his hands moving up, down, and across the keyboard like hyperactive spiders. "Defenses eliminated! Starscream Wing, focus attacks on these coordinates! Let's rip this place open like a tin can!"

The robots directed their weapons at the spots their undead master indicated and opened fire. Their bullets merely pinged off the deadstone barrier, but whenever a blue-green energy wave hit the material it disappeared as if sucked into a void. Slowly, the deadstone's coloration shifted from grey to greenish-black in the targeted areas.

Iris' gaze turned to another video feed, which showed Zero and Cramer's hovercar dropping down to settle in an alley near ground zero. The two warriors joined with the rest of Cramer's squad (except Officer Casselini) and Picard's squad. They exchanged some words not transmitted through the video feeder, and settled into ready positions.

"And now, the disappearing act," Flash chuckled. "Silly Kyuubit, thinking she could hide the Spawn from me. Or the teleport router. Oh, that's right, she thinks I'm dead.

"BWA HAHAHAHA! SHE'S RIGHT! I drop the bomb on the chilluns!"

00000

Officers Kurosaki and Smith saluted their commanding officer as he climbed out of the police hovercar. Lt. Cramer returned the salute and exchanged salutes with Lt. Picard and the Officers Haolin as well.

The lavender-eyed swordsman smiled and addressed the assembled warriors, Zero included, in his usual drawl. Back in the Elites HQ, Lt. Alia Sorores and her subordinates, Officers Jeri Cato and Joel Zemorah, listened in as they always did.

"Well, gentlemen, since the Captain's working with the 33rd in the sky for this mission, I'll give the pre-battle peptalk." Picard cleared his throat.

"I've been fighting Sigma's cultists and other violent miscreants in this city for twelve years now. We've killed some of theirs, they've killed some of ours, et cetera. It's been one of the bloodier types of stalemates, and its been going on since before I was born. Blood, death, and more blood. But that's not the worst part, gentleman, not by a long shot.

"The worst part is that the Cult has been growing. Good old Stormy Hill has been rotting inside, upper and lower classes alike, and the cultists have been taking advantage to spread further and further into the hearts and minds of the people. A few short weeks ago, that all changed when a certain beautiful young lady stepped onto the political scene and started her crusade against the Cult. Against Sigma and his cronies.

"We've all done our part protecting Miss Cainson from the violent arm of her enemies. Today, we have the chance to do more than defend and protect her. We have the chance to make her dreams a reality, to decapitate the Cult in our city and show the people that they don't have to fear, or obey, the false god Sigma."

He paused briefly. They heard a noise like the death of a glacier from the direction of ground zero. "That's our cue, gentlemen. Ready your weapons and brace for teleport. It's going to be hell on earth down there, and those cultists are going to burn.

"Alia, we're counting on you and your team to support us, watch over us, and lead us to the cultists' secret weapon. This is our finest hour."

With that, Lieutenants Jean-Pierre Picard and Conan Cramer, Officers Smith and Kurosaki, Officers Kai and Matt Haolin, and Zero Doppler vanished from the alley and reappeared in the fight that would become a legend.

00000

"At this rate, they'll break through the deadstone ceiling, Lady!" Antoine ten Haaft looked away from Java's teleconsole and turned to his commander, his olive green eyes immediately fixing on her feminine curves. Other cultists sat at TC's throughout the room, and into the next, and the next, all typing busily to prepare or activate one defensive program or another.

Haaft, for his part, wore a set of yellow scale mail accented with orange plates in vital places like his chest, back, and helmet. A huge axe lay in a sheath on his back. A few other warriors, members of his squad, strode around the room bullying the cultist code monkeys into working faster. He stared at the front of Celestia's chain mail shirt as if hoping to burn a hole through it. "Shall I tell the programmers to release the Gutsmen?"

"Yes. That should keep Cainson busy, at least. Do whatever else is necessary to buy us time until the Spawn is ready. I have business elsewhere."

Celestia turned and began to walk away. Antoine grabbed her wrist, and the rosy warrior reacted with a quick spin and twist that put him in an armlock in front of her. He sighed, smiling, as pain lanced through his arm and shoulder. His foxy captor growled in his ear.

"You'd better have a good reason for touching me, scum."

Haaft breathed heavily, listening to the sound of his armor clinking against hers. "Oh, Lady, I can't wait until you take control of this miserable city and its scummy, infidel population. I can see it now, the Genesis King's face on every flag, and your heavenly self shepherding his flock, your whip on the back of every infidel. I couldn't help myself, I just wanted to touch you one last time before your ascension takes you beyond my pathetic reach—"

Celestia giggled, her expression totally transformed. "Don't be silly, wretch. I'll still have time for you after all this is done. You've been my favorite since I first saw the way you loved to bleed for me."

She tore off his helmet and sunk her teeth into his ear, setting a trickle of his data dripping down the curve of his earlobe. Haaft gasped, eyes rolling and mouth open in a slack-jawed grin, as Celestia slowly licked it off. His wound healed almost instantaneously, but the pain lingered longer. She spoke to him in a throaty, vulpine purr very unlike her ordinary musical soprano.

"Do a good job manning these defenses, and I'll make sure we have lots and lots of time to play afterwards. Promise?"

"I promise, Lady. I won't fail you, ever," he whispered tremulously, staring at the ceiling.

Celestia released him from the armlock and swept out of the room. Antoine ten Haaft staggered around to watch her go, her hips swaying and strawberry blond hair waving loosely around her shoulders.

After a long moment, he turned back to the scarred, trembling Java and the other programmers. He scowled, eyes bright, and started shouting orders.

"Summon the Gutsmen! Ready the missiles! Fend those infidels off and make them pay for their insolence! Today is the day of Sigma's, of the Lady's ascension!"

Sauntering down one of her headquarters' many corridors, Celestia licked Antoine's blood from her lips. She jumped and glanced upwards as a strange, massive noise like the shattering of a giant crystal filtered down from the surface, several stories above. _Vile. Is the Spawn ready yet?_

_No, Lady. It will be another few minutes._

The vixen growled to herself."Incompetent scum. If Zero and his scumbag friends find the teleport router…" her expression softened subtly. "Well, that wouldn't be such a bad thing, actually. I'll get to try out my new toy right off the bat."

Her fox ears twitched, and the blonde stopped and sniffed the air. Her eyes widening, Celestia cursed creatively and foully and activated the intercom. "Intruders in laboratory 4A! Units 5 and 8, move in to intercept! Code number 88-23, I repeat, code 88-23!"

Celestia dashed down the hallway towards the nearest stairwell, quietly but thoroughly cursing the Doctor for failing to repair the internal teleport protocols.

00000

In a blinding green flash of light, the warriors of the 71st (minus Casselini and Nagasaki, plus Zero) Elite Brigade materialized in a largish chamber with rows of workbenches, containment devices, and other paraphernalia. Other than themselves, no one currently occupied the room.

Picard took a quick look around. _Alia, I can confirm safe arrival, but the teleport router threw us into some kind of lab. There's no enemy presence yet. Can you see us?_

_Yes. I've found your location on the map. Follow this path:…_

They kept up a continuous stream of communication after that. Picard made a hand signal, leaping across to the double doors in a violet blur and drawing his epee and main gauche on the way. The X Force followed their lieutenant, each of them armed with the arm cannon and main gauche that came with his Style. Zero came with them as rearguard while Cramer's squad (himself, Kurosaki, and Smith) checked an adjoining side lab room for hidden enemies, then followed their comrades out the doors. Lt. Sorores and Officer Zemorah watched the process from video feeds hidden in the warriors' armor, looking for trouble, while Officer Cato busily intercepted the enemy's beamed messages for the same purpose.

The narrow hallway was empty, or at least empty of significant furniture, and ran in two directions. One end terminated in another room about thirty yards off, with other closed doors along the way. The other branched off into three more hallways, a few yards off. Guided by Lt. Sorores, Zero shifted to a lead position and dashed towards the branching point. Picard's squad followed behind and Cramer's squad took up a stationary position at the rear.

_I just detected and disabled a viral trap attack, and there's more of them in your path, _Zemorah beamed to them suddenly. _They know you guys're in there._

Suddenly, the floor shook and rattled under the warriors' feet. Cato's voice came into their heads. _Watch out, it's coming from down the hallway at the rear!_

Smith, staring down the corridor with double cannon and tower shield at the ready, gave a shout.

"That's one huge moth—"

"I AM TUNNEL RHINO YOU WILL DIE!"

With that, a warrior at least two tons in weight burst out of the room at the other end of the corridor, thirty yards from Cramer's squad. Drills erupted from the beast's arms, torso, and even its face, creating a high-pitched roar as they began to spin.

Gunfire, shouting, and the clang of metal on metal sounded from around the corner, declaring Zero and Picard's squad to be busy with their own problems. Facing the monstrous cultist alone with his squad, Lt. Conan Cramer reacted instantly, hurling a brace of grenades into the self-proclaimed Tunnel Rhino's face. Smith fired off his double cannon and Kurosaki swung his falchion, respectively sending a pair of explosive shells and a razor-edged crescent of force towards their tanklike foe.

Tunnel Rhino roared and charged straight into the attacks. The force wave scratched his neck armor and the bullets dented his chestplate, but otherwise didn't even slow him down. Cramer's grenades detonated with a blast that fractured the blackstone walls and created a cloud of black smoke, but the monster emerged from the explosion with no more than a few dents and abrasions. His heavy booted feet pummeling the floor, Tunnel Rhino thundered towards his enemies with nerve-shaking speed.

Smith dropped the double cannon, stepped in front of his team members, and used his free arm to grasp his tower shield's second handle. The shield changed from a six-by-three foot curved metal plate into a deadstone wall whose edges grew outwards to fit the dimensions of the hallway. His two-ton enemy struck the impenetrable, immobile barrier with a dull thud, followed by a profound silence from even the drills.

Under Picard's direction, the other squad had already departed. Cramer, Smith, and Kurosaki dashed after them, weapons at the ready. They turned one, two, three corners without meeting any more resistance, Alia's voice guiding them towards their goal. Occasionally Zemorah informed them of another neurohack or other malware he'd thwarted for their sakes.

Suddenly the wall exploded behind them, and Tunnel Rhino emerged from the breach. "YOU WILL DIE ENEMIES OF THE GENESIS KING!"

Again forewarned by Officer Cato, Cramer turned and flung a double fistful of shuriken at the beast's face, though the little throwing stars merely bounced off his hide. "You two go on! I'm the only one that can handle this thing!"

"Yessir!" Kurosaki and the shieldless Smith saluted and kept moving. Their lieutenant threw down a smoke bomb, covering their retreat and his own position.

Tunnel Rhino revved his drills and charged into the smoke, snarling. There was a short, loud shout, followed by a tremendous crash, and the whine of the drills slowed to a final stop.

Cramer stepped out of the cloud, his black on black ninja suit mingling seamlessly with the curling smoke. He stuffed a coil of rope and a bloody stiletto knife into a fold of his clothing, and leapt from shadow to shadow after the rest of the police warriors. When he kept by himself, no normal eye could follow the man's passage though even a well-lit place like the cultists' HQ.

"A situation well diffused," the ninja murmured to himself. "Would've been bad if he'd known I had an unbreakable tripwire on hand, though."

00000

The Starscream Wing fired away at the deadstone barrier unopposed, each shot of their energy cannons giving Flash a microsecond-long connection into the material's core data. As it absorbed blast after blast, the barrier turned an ugly greenish black and began to crack. Suddenly it shattered altogether, and Kat let out a whoop of joy.

The undead programmer's robots dropped through the ruined deadstone to the first level of the compound, and fifty Gutsmen burst forth from the rubble. With a roar that transcended noise and hit the hearer like a physical force, the warriors instantly pounded the Starscream wing to scattered fragments.

Flash laughed, his face turning red. "You fools think you can outsummon me?! I am Flash! I am the Overmind! Go forth, my Zergling children!"

Ripping, mauling, clawing, and scampering its way through the battlefield, any given Zergling looked like a cross between a wolverine, a velociraptor, a cockroach and, as Flash would say, "your mom." Its hundred and eighty pounds of dense, armored, spiny body attacked with the killing instinct of the vilest human psychopath and the power of an automatic mincer. A dozen of them could only be described as a natural disaster.

Faster than thought, five hundred of the hideous little monsters piled out of thin air into the Gutsmen's ranks.

Flash's expression turned blank and he stopped trash talking, or even saying anything at all. Controlling the bloodthirsty swarms purely through his teleconsole, his fingers repeatedly broke the speed of sound as he typed at its much-enduring keyboard.

Iris, glancing at his face, backed away slowly. Kat glimpsed the woman's movement out of the corner of her eye and followed her example.

"I think maybe this is overkill," the brunette whispered.

Her bodyguard nodded. "They must have all their programmers controlling the Gutsmen to use that many at once."

Iris shook her head. "Not for long, they don't."

00000

Zero skidded to a stop as yet another enemy showed his face. The grey warrior spun like a five-foot, hundred and sixty pound top, wielding a pair of scimitars and advancing on him like a miniature hurricane. He looked over his shoulder, and saw that Picard and the X Force were still engaged with a single warrior dancing amidst a shifting, roaring wreath of flames. Farther back, Kurosaki and Smith were thundering towards them to provide assistance. At this distance he couldn't perceive Cramer at all.

The crimson warrior turned back to his foe and met the slashing scimitars with the Z-Saber and his kite shield. For several seconds the top-warrior's blades kept Zero on the defense, the rapid hail of strikes forcing him to give ground and devote his own weapon to blocking his enemy's.

Steel rang on steel while flames and energy cannons roared in the background. To Zero's enhanced perceptions, the battle proceeded at a leisurely pace, but the top warrior's circular attack pattern left no easy openings despite its relative slowness. The blond tossed his head, throwing his super-long ponytail to the side, and changed the Z-Saber's angle. His opponent smirked, batting at the beam saber with one scimitar while the other came up to take advantage of the new hole in the crimson warrior's defense.

His smirk shattered when Zero's weapon clove through both of his own. Its hot wreath of laser energy had softened the steel of the scimitars over the past few seconds of parrying and blocking, leaving them ripe for destruction. Pieces of blade whirred down through the air, about where the blond's ponytail would have been had he not flipped it aside in advance.

The top man, still spinning, stared at the remaining stubs of his weapons for one instant. In that instant Zero switched the Z-Saber's momentum and slashed it diagonally across the warrior's face. Gurgling, the grey armored warrior spiraled to the floor in a heap and began to decompose.

Zero turned to help his allies against the flamer, and found the fires of battle already put out. Kai held a falchion to the orange armored man's throat, keeping him prone on the floor, while Matt put his hand to the man's head. His form blurred, and the young warrior's azure plate mail transformed into the oddly curly, black and red-trimmed, stylized Old Oriental military uniform his flame-wielding enemy had worn.

"Whoah! All right, this rocks!" the younger Haolin hooted. He punched the air, and a jet of fire stabbed out and scorched the ceiling. "X Force go!"

Kai stabbed forwards, severing his prone enemy's throat. "Just don't burn me, I'm hurt enough as it is." He looked up at the blond. "What are you staring at? Get moving!"

Zero blinked and looked around at the other policemen. Smith had lost his shield, Kurosaki had sustained some burns, and Picard remained undamaged. He could barely see Cramer, still acting as stealthy rearguard, but the ninja moved as if unhurt. The crimson warrior had taken a scratch or two from the top man but those had already begun to heal.

"We will meet real resistance soon. Be prepared." Zero turned and led the way forward. While Alia echoed his thoughts in a beamed message, Picard's squad followed quickly behind and Cramer's men formed the center, while the ninja himself remained in the back in a state very close to invisibility.

"If that drill thing wasn't real resistance, I don't wanna know what is," Smith grumbled to Kurosaki.

The orange haired warrior slid a finger down the length of his falchion as he ran. "Heh. I really wanna see something Doppler can't take down in ten measly seconds."

Officer Smith scowled and began to respond. He stopped, eyes widened. "I can't hear the lieutenant or the others! We've been firewalled!"

As those words left the policeman's mouth, a torrent of senbon shot out of thin air in front of Zero's angular face. Reacting before he even saw the attack, the warrior ducked and rolled to dodge the poisoned needles, but his momentum carried him too far forwards. The crimson warrior vanished from before his companions' eyes as though he had crossed an invisible barrier, a single senbon embedded in his chin.

Picard's squad, following close on the blond's heels, smacked straight into a sudden deadstone wall where Zero had disappeared. Behind them, Officer Kurosaki turned at the sound of gunfire, and witnessed Lt. Conan Cramer die in a hail of Vile's bullets.

00000

Zero opened his eyes to a dark, grey, featureless plain that stretched in total flatness to a lighter grey, equally featureless sky. The two surfaces came together in a horizon so straight it made the eyes water. There was nothing else, absolutely nothing but himself on the entirety of the plain.

The warrior sheathed his beam saber and shield, which he had automatically drawn upon awakening.

"Matt? Kai? Picard?"

His voice disappeared into the air like an inconvenient bagful of kittens into a pond.

"Flash? Iris? Cramer? Kat?…Malon? Celestia?"

Nothing. He shouted this time.

"Mother! Father!"

Nothing but himself.

Nought.

Zero.

Null.


	27. Chapter 26: Escalation

Author's note: Hey everybody. Just so y'all know, I'll be reworking the first few chapters of the story soon. Why would I do this, you ask? Well, because right now the first few chapters suck. Hard core.

I'll also be adding a new chapter that goes before chapter one, called "Chapter Zero" (I'm afraid the pun is unavoidable). In the meantime, enjoy this next installment of the final battle.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Escalation**

Flash's Swarm of summoned Zerglings ripped the fifty Gutsmen to shreds and poured into the complex through the shattered ceiling. The monsters burrowed through the very floors in a maddened effort to find something to kill, but encountered little success in that area; the top levels had already been evacuated.

In their rampage the Zerglings triggered automatic flamethrowers, missile turrets, floor mines, acid sprays, and all the other automatic defenses Celestia had thought up on her rainy days. They died left, right, and center, but Flash merely blinked and devoted more control to the remainder every time. In short order his creations morphed from a frenzied swarm to a cold-blooded killing force.

Meanwhile, the spotters of the 33rd, 40th, 5th and 9th Elite Brigades took the opportunity to analyze and hack every trap as they saw them triggered. Within sixty seconds most of the defenses had been neutralized, allowing the actual warriors of the 40th, 5th, and 9th Elites to rush in behind the Zerglings and secure the area. (The 33rd, like Cpt. Nagasaki, remained in the air as reinforcements and insurance against an aerial counterattack.)

After roughly half of Flash's five hundred summoned monsters had been eliminated by the automatic defenses, a second wave of Gutsmen broke into their ranks, fists swinging. A detachment of the Swarm broke off and annihilated the tanklike defenders with some ranged help from a nearby squad of Elites. Despite the best efforts of the base defenders, before long the Zerglings reached parts of the compound with real, human, vulnerable cultists.

Abruptly Flash cursed, and the tenor of his typing changed. "Friggin' pansy pie thinks he can cut my babies' data links, gonna eat it, gonna shove it down 'is throat, what? No! I've been hacked like a two-bit cheesewad!" The undead programmer wailed. On screen, a quarter of his remaining Zerglings turned on one another and themselves, clawing, biting, slashing, gnawing, killing.

Iris' hand rose to her mouth, her countenance pale in the face of the carnage and her brother's words. Kat put an arm around her shoulders and turned her away.

"We oughta go, Miss Cainson. There's no call for a lady like you to watch all that."

"No," the brunette shook her head. "I have to face this. I'm partly responsible for this madness, and if I can't see it through I'll never be able to look at myself in the mirror again."

Leaning over the keyboard of his teleconsole, Flash mumbled under his breath, keeping his voice too low for his sister to hear his curses. "your ------ - ------ - ------ ------ mothershoveitup0x0A34C58E------. Put that in your socks and smoke it! What? No. No! Aargh, you wily sonofagun, I'll get you for this, whoever you are—oh wow, pretty rockets!"

00000

"I am Zero." The warrior turned around and around, but the flat grey land and flat grey sky were the same everywhere. Again, the emptiness sucked away his words. There was nothing, absolutely nothing but himself. "I am Zero."

"Yes, yes. I'm glad we're clear on that point." Flash's voice came from all around him. "You are, in fact, Zero. Oh, don't look so surprised. This kind of stuff happens all the time to guys like you. It's a little cliché, even, but I think it'll be a lot of fun to see how it all goes down."

"What? Flash? Where are you?" the blond spun around, his ponytail whipping to and fro with the motion. "Where am I?"

"We're inside your head…that's why it's so empty. Badoom-zing!" the voice cackled. "But I'm not Flash. I'm an avatar program he left in here for when this kind of thing happens. You're deadlocked, Zerry, nothing in or out. Some kinda neurohack or somethin' musta got ahold ofofof you. Ahem. Now you're stuck with yourself until you figure an escape."

"Can't Flash help me?"

"Nope. A hacker's gotta have an interface, some kinda way in, and there isn't nothin' doin' . Ahem. I'm talking funny. I must be glitchy for some reason. Hey, lotsa lots of fun chatting with ya, but I got-t-t-t-t-ta go."

The voice paused, and parted with the following words. "Hey. Zero, y not the only you in here, ya know? …do what you do best."

With that, the voice was gone. The blond warrior stood for awhile, brows creased, his processors thrumming. Eventually he shook his head and started walking across the endless plain.

He walked, and walked, and walked. After counting a hundred thousand steps, the young man stopped counting. Without the server's operating system to regulate its tick, his internal clock had already shut down. Zero walked, staring at the blank horizon, with no way to tell time and no landmarks to tell his progress.

Once he stabbed the ground with the Z-Saber, and it sunk into the grayness like a knife through cheese. When he pulled the glowing blade free the ground sealed up without so much as a scar. He also tried cutting himself to leave a trail of blood data, but after a thousand steps and a thousand drops he looked back to find that the spots of precious fluid had disappeared without a trace. There were no landmarks, and no way of making any.

Humans have fallen asleep at the wheel with one-tenth of one percent the provocation. Zero's eyes remained open, his body tense as he walked. His path remained absolutely straight, taking him across the plain in a perfect beeline. For a timeless interval he continued this way.

All at once, the landscape transformed around him. The ground rumpled and wrinkled into a rocky beach, and the smell of the sea pervaded Zero's nose. Birds called in the distance, their squawking cries mixed with the roar of the waves and the wind through the dune grass. A cliff rose behind him, water splashed in front of him, and sand shifted under his feet.

Zero turned to the cliff and watched through widened eyes as someone jumped headlong off the cliff, screaming all the way. Thirty yards above the ground, the figure sprouted a voluminous sail of a parachute, and the warrior saw that he'd had a surfboard attached to his feet the whole time.

Shouting and laughing, the teenager flipped in the air, hit the water surfboard first, and skipped across the waves like a seabird skimming for fish. An ordinary human's legs would have shattered with the impact, sail or no sail.

Zero walked quickly across the beach towards the sea. "You! Hey, you! Give me your name!" his shout cut through the white noise of the wind and waves. "Where are we!"

The teenager on the surfboard continued surfing as though he had not heard. Zero kept shouting, however, and eventually the surfer turned towards him.

"Go away! I'm having fun!"

"I won't leave! Where are we!"

"Somewhere! It doesn't matter!"

Zero scowled and looked closer at the youth. He was clad in a black bodysuit with red and white highlights that reached from his ankles to his neck, his bare feet clamped to the surfboard. His short, corn blond hair fell freely around his ears. He wore a small pack strapped to his back and another, smaller one on his leg. His face…

It was Zero, as he had looked roughly three years ago, at the age of sixteen. The face and build were precisely the same. The elder, armored Zero's hands twitched.

Finally, the teenage Zero let go of the sail and surfed a monster wave towards the beach. Once he'd come ashore, the youth detached himself from the surfboard and ran over to the young man.

"This had better be good! The waves are best this time of day!"

The warrior looked around. Sure enough, there was a sun in the sky, and it seemed to be moving very, very slightly. He returned his gaze to the surfer boy. "You look like me. You are not me. Who are you?"

"I'm Zero, Zero Doppler! What about it!" the teenage blond yelped, hands clenched at his sides. "You wanna fight? I'll take you on!"

"You're not me. I was never this hyper."

"And I'll never be that ugly! That armor tanks, man!"

"You are an imposter. Why do you lie!"

They stood toe to toe, shouting at one another. Unarmored sixteen-year-old Zero's sapphire eyes smiled as his mouth frowned, while armored nineteen-year-old Zero scowled. His younger self threw the first punch, knuckles slamming into his elder's bodysuit at the stomach. "Hiyah! Let's rumble, man!"

Armored Zero grabbed for him, but the surfer boy dodged back and drew a beam saber from out of nowhere. It shone a dazzling gold that matched the color of the sun. The warrior drew his own blade in reply, its aura a brilliant white as always. They squared off, two Zeros holding their Z-Sabers up at the ready. The elder version wore his kite shield as well; the younger held his left hand out to the side, empty.

"If you attack me, I'll fight to kill," the blond warrior growled.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," his opponent replied, short yellow hair waving in the wind. Grinning, the surfer boy leapt at the young man, his movements slightly swifter for the lack of heavy plate mail. "Hiyah!"

Armored Zero blocked with the kite shield and countered with a vicious stab, but his opponent twisted out of the way and landed a quick glancing blow on his forearm. The golden Z-Saber skipped off the young man's plate mail, leaving only a thin scratch, but the surfer boy just grinned wider and launched a series of stabs and slashes. His opponent parried, blocked, and gave ground in face of the teenager's lightning onslaught. Numerous small cuts and scratches appeared on the young man's plate mail and bodysuit.

Teenage Zero never slowed down, never paused, dodging narrowly from every counterattack to deliver a counter-counterattack. The surfer boy's bare feet danced on the sand, propelling him ever forwards, ever deeper on the offensive, into greater and greater danger. His sapphire eyes sparkled, grinning and laughing.

Then he slipped, just once, on the unstable sand. The teenage blond twisted catlike to regain his footing and found the older Zero's beam saber buried in his chest.

He staggered and fell to his knees, his expression frozen; the blow had damaged several major processors. Armored Zero allowed the surfer boy to slide slowly off the blade, its wreath of light burning a couple more subprocessors on the way out.

Waves crashed on the beach, and a mini-flock of seagulls took flight. Sunlight beat down on everything. The young blond smiled, his eyes closing as data poured from his chest.

"That…was fun…we should do it…again…" he coughed. "Tell Lust I said…hi…and tell Pride…up yours, ha ha—"

He slumped over, falling face first into the hot dry sand. The wound in his chest did not heal and he did not reboot.

Armored Zero looked around, and the beautiful scenery faded back to the flat gray plain. He looked back to the other Zero, and saw that his body had begun to decompose into its component programs. After a few minutes, even his bodysuit and sword faded from sight. After watching himself die and disintegrate, Zero frowned and sheathed his saber.

"I will do what I do best. I will eliminate the Mavericks."

00000

Celestia nudged Zero's immobile body with her foot. At first glance, he looked unconscious or asleep, but no matter what she did the vixen couldn't move him so much as a fraction of an inch.

Her fox ears focused on the deadstone wall, on the other side of which the 71st Elites fought for the remainder of their lives. The air shimmered slightly on this side, the only reminder of the one-way illusion the young woman had used to make this room look like another segment of hallway.

"How long will he stay like this, Doctor? I don't want him to wake up before I've killed off his friends, but I want to be able to kill him later."

"Hmm, busy, talk to you later, Kyuubit," the old man replied from his chair. There was silence for a moment, and he glanced over at the strawberry blonde. She grinned fixedly at him, showing off her pointed fangs. The Doctor sighed.

"Sorry, I should say, I'm very busy keeping us all alive right now. By all means, get out that whip you love so much and start in on me if you want to die by Flash Cainson's interference.

"As for that fool boy Zero, there's only one way out of his head and he's too dumb to find it. He could rip himself to pieces inside, or maybe just go around in mental circles until doomsday, but I don't know which and I don't care." His fingers never stopped rapping on the keys of his teleconsole. "Quit bothering me."

Celestia made an unladylike noise in her throat. "Of all the arrogant—fine. I'm going to go make sure Vile is doing his job." She swept off, reaching inside one of her weapons pouches for a handful of explosive beads.

00000

Cramer's corpse slumped to the floor, riddled with bullet holes. Officer Kurosaki sprang towards his lieutenant's killer, screaming from deep in his belly, and swung his six foot long falchion. The blade released its wave attack, sending a razor crescent of force slicing through the air. At the same time, Smith raised his double cannon and took aim, Lt. Picard kicked off the wall that Kai and Matt had run into, and the two members of the self-proclaimed X Force respectively rolled and sprang to their feet.

Vile activated the jump jets in his boots and back, veering to the side as the blade's ranged wave attack sliced through the air where he had been. He pointed his P-90 submachine guns, one in each hand, and opened up on Kurosaki in his bone-white armor and orange hair. Meanwhile his shoulder mounted rocket launcher autotargeted Officer Smith's burly pink frame and fired, sending an RPG to reach out and touch him.

Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard's wallkick sent him careening back down the hallway towards the darker purple warrior. He passed the pink policeman before the grenade reached him, zipped by the white officer while the man dodged away from the P-90s' blazing rain of bullets, and crossed Vile's path in mid-air. Picard's epee reached out like a whiplash of steel, slicing across one of the few gaps in the warrior's heavy violet plate mail. A couple of drops of Vile's data joined Cramer's on the floor.

Simultaneously, the RPG detonated, hitting everyone inside the blast radius like an enraged lineman on mutant steroids. At the epicenter of the explosion, Officer Smith's broken body slammed into the floor, smoke curling around it like a restless ghost.

Channeled by the corridor's heavy blackrock walls, the shockwave pummeled the lightweight Picard, though forty feet away, into another wall. His airborne opponent, weighing in at 260 lbs with all his armor and weaponry, barely blinked.

The violet warrior's jump jets propelled him in a tight curve, turning him around to take aim on the policeman in his thin purple scale mail. Both P-90's fired off a hot storm of lead poisoning, the bullets travelling far too fast for the stunned lieutenant to dodge.

00000

_You still can't reach them?_ Cpt. Nagasaki beamed to Officer Cato. His eleven-foot spear continued to throw off sparks, generating a smell of ozone. _There's no trouble up here. I should've gone with them._

The spotter began to reply, but interrupted herself. _Sir! Look down, there's s-something coming!_

Nagasaki did so, and saw a slender, seven foot long, dull blue and grey missile launch itself up from the slaughterhouse of a battlefield below. Without hesitation the silversteel armored policeman narrowed his golden eyes and dove, spiraling down at the missile as it shot up. They passed within yards of each other, like a pair of knights jousting at a tourney. Only the captain, however, had a weapon with 500,000 volts of death ready to reach out and say hello.

Lightning flashed and crackled from the lethally charged spear to the missile, frying its AI controls and turning the entry point to slag. The rocket sailed on for a second before its fuel tank ruptured and exploded, setting off the bomb in the missile's nose. Nagasaki, already fifty yards away and turning his dive into an upwards swoop, shuddered in the concussive wave but kept his balance in the air. The policeman's gaze remained locked on the ground from where the rocket had come.

_Captain, I think that one w-w-was headed for the C-C-Cainson mansion! _Cato stuttered to him. _They're t-t-trying to kill Miss Cainson and her brother!_

Nagasaki gripped his spear, his scarred visage tightening. While he watched, eight more missiles launched into the air along the same trajectory as the first.


	28. Chapter 27: Counterattack

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Counterattack**

Zero walked the grey plain once again, as alone as he'd been before he killed the teenage version of himself. He endured the monotony of the dead landscape for another timeless interval, his processors beating very slowly with the lack of new sensory input.

After a hundred thousand, a million more steps, the warrior's feet fell with a couple of clanks on glittering ground. He looked around, and witnessed the landscape shift into something new.

Ivory and metal detail work, coupled with chandeliers of perfectly shaped quartz and glass, covered the vaulted ceiling. Murals spread across the walls like banners, declaring in pictorial form the honorable, bloody, glorious deeds of Hurricane Force Academy's founders, staff, and alumni. An intricate mosaic formed the floor, sparkling with the flare of several tons of diamonds, rubies, opals, topazes, bloodstones, citrines, amethysts, sapphires, and every other type and color of gem imaginable. Zero's eyes swept the mosaic for a moment, and he blinked as he saw the picture it displayed.

Then the crowds appeared, covering the floor and filling the room. They milled around aimlessly, murmuring syllables without sense. Zero frowned and strode through the people, glancing around as he did. Many of them carried weapons and wore armor; most seemed about the right age for college students or their parents. Others wore the insignia of combat masters and school officials.

He looked up and saw that the massive wall clock stated the day to be March 19th, a couple of days before the start of the spring semester's classes. Time for course registrations. He blinked and grabbed a nearby combat master by the arm.

"I am Zero. Who are you and how did you get here?"

The armored man turned to face the young blond, and vanished into thin air. Zero drew the Z-Saber and donned his kite shield.

"Where am I! Who is in charge here!"

The crowds milled endlessly. No one turned to regard him.

At the real Hurricane Force Academy, somebody would have challenged him to a duel by now. Zero sauntered through the murmuring people towards the reception desks, but the secretaries acted as if he didn't exist. When physically touched, they disappeared as though they didn't exist either.

After several minutes' fruitless effort trying to find a real person in the mob, the blond walked over to the grand, frosty-glassed double doors and pushed outwards. The translucent portals gave in to the pressure, and Zero strode through them…

…only to find himself at the entrance to the registrar again.

The young warrior's knuckles tightened on his beam saber. He couldn't see the mosaic of the floor because of the crowds, but he could and did take another long look at the murals around the walls.

They were all of him now. He, Zero, singlehandedly laying waste to an enemy army; choosing a bride from the most beautiful and powerful of a hundred foreign princesses and heiresses; burying his weapon in Sigma's bald old head; ruling the servers with an iron fist and a gentle twinkle in his eye; it went on and on, and in each picture, the warrior's ponytail was longer and his armor more stylized and decorated.

"Pure conceit. I'm not that prideful," Zero muttered to himself, scowling. He blinked, and his expression shifted to a twisted smile. "Pride. That's what he meant. Up yours, pride!"

The crowds suddenly stopped milling and turned to face the other side of the room, away from the Zero who had spoken and towards another Zero.

He stepped out from one of the murals, his blond ponytail falling past his knees like a glorious flag. His armor had twice, three times the ornamentation of his counterpart's. He surveyed the multitude serenely from his eight and a half feet of height.

He tilted up his chin and smiled. "I am Zero. Bow down and worship your god."

00000

While the smoke from the RPG cleared and Officer Kurosaki gathered his legs under him for another leap, Vile's bullets ricocheted off a circular, rainbow colored barrier in front of Lt. Picard. Momentarily thwarted in his pursuit of another man's death, the violet warrior's head jerked to the side, his gaze landing on the source of the shield.

Vile saw Officer Matt Haolin, his azure armor replaced with a frilly, shimmering robe complete with hood. Meanwhile, his brother Kai had apparently donned a pair of beige blond cat ears and matching armor, as well as an icy scepter. The two of them dashed down the corridor at full speed towards Vile's position at the T-shaped intersection.

Their enemy activated his jump jets, shooting behind the corner to put him out of the X Force's line of sight, and trained his P-90's on Picard once more. The purple police warrior rolled to his feet, leapt to the side, and kicked off the wall and ceiling in rapid succession as bullets streaked through the air all around him. Two seconds and sixty automatic rounds later, Vile fired off a pair of missiles at the lieutenant and spiraled away to avoid the shouting Kurosaki and his lunging falchion.

He collided thunderously into another of Matt's shimmering barriers. His breath knocked out by the impact, Vile flared his jump jets and lashed out with his legs to get airborne again. As Kurosaki's falchion whistled through the air where he had been, the violet warrior's shoulder mounted rocket launcher fired another salvo of rockets.

In the meantime, Lt. Picard dashed away from the missiles the violet warrior had devoted specially to him. His form blurring down one branch of the corridor, the policeman ran nearly as fast as the weapons chasing him. Nearly.

While the homing missiles caught up to him, Picard leapt and somersaulted towards yet another handy wall. With perfect coordination and control, he kicked off it towards the ground, diving narrowly beneath his doom. The missiles swerved around in a tight arc, short of the wall, and continued pursuit. The police warrior cursed, sheathed his main gauche, and drew a pistol from its leg holster as he ran.

Over a hundred yards away, half a dozen five inch long rockets scattered into the air from Vile's rocket launcher and shot towards the X Force on a half dozen different trajectories. Matt's eyes widened and he somersaulted backwards, while Kai waved the scepter in his hands Casselini-style. A massive blast of frigid air burst from the weapon, rolling down the corridor like a boulder towards Harrison Ford in a cool adventuring outfit, but much faster than either one of them. As the supercooled air rushed through the hallway, the incoming missiles froze solid and fell to the floor with a swift series of explosions.

On the other side of the detonations, Kurosaki shouted and brought his blade in an upwards swipe at Vile's legs. The violet warrior laughed, somersaulting in the air even as he brought his P-90's to bear on the orange-haired young man. While the officer dodged away, Kai's freezing blast took Vile full in the back, instantly encasing his plate mail covered body in a layer of rock hard ice. He fell to the ground with a massive crash, scattering glittering crystals of his prison in every direction.

Officer Kurosaki raised his falchion for a deathblow on the other warrior's prone form. In that moment, Celestia's foxfire circle activated like a wormhole straight from the surface of Old Earth's sun. White-hot flames filled the hallway, allowing no escape for the orange haired policeman.

00000

"My god?" the smaller Zero laughed shortly as the crowd around him knelt to the floor. He strode towards the larger, more ornamented version of himself, beam saber and kite shield in hand. "You are Pride. You don't belong in my head. Surrender now or die."

Pride Zero smiled broadly. "I heard of what you did to Adrenaline. Thank you for your small service. I could use a warrior like yourself."

"You are a Maverick. I don't serve Mavericks. I kill them."

With that, Zero dashed in to attack. Pride Zero, with a total reach over two feet greater than his opponent's, struck first with an overhead chop of his shining 42" (blade length) Z-Saber. The other warrior threw up his kite shield to block and gasped as the sheer force of the blow slammed through his body into the ground under his feet, sending cracks through the stone foundation beneath the mosaic.

Pride Zero pivoted on one foot and kicked his opponent's raised shield, hurling the warrior through the insubstantial crowd to land in a twisted heap on the floor. The smaller blond twitched and groaned as his eight-and-a-half foot counterpart strode over, that same broad smile pasted across his handsome angular face.

"Fool. I expected better from you. Your bones couldn't take that little kick?"

"------ ------." Zero's grip tightened on his Z-Saber and he began to rise to his feet. His giant opponent kicked him again, throwing him across the room. More of the people evaporated as his body sailed through them.

"I will not tolerate disobedience. Not from myself. Not from anyone. All will bow before the Crimson King! Sigma will fall, and I will take his place!" Pride Zero laughed. "None will question me. They will love me and fear my might. You cannot stop me. Fool."

The smaller Zero coughed a few drops of shining data up onto the gemstone mosaic floor. "You're too big. Too fast. This is bad."

Despite his statement, the blond's mouth turned up slightly at the corners. His opponent completely missed this detail.

"Now you see sense. Too late. Your attack shows disrespect that must be punished. Prepare to die." The crimson warrior approached with long, slow steps, but flinched before he'd closed the distance between them. Glancing down, Pride saw a small trickle of data running from a cut in his calf armor.

"You…you cut me? Infidel!" He shot a sapphire-eyed glare at the smaller warrior.

Zero chuckled, his broken bones crackling as they knit. "Pride, how fast do you heal?"

The giant Zero roared and leapt into the air, tucking in his legs and spinning end over end. Pride's form blurred with the speed of its rotation, beam saber slicing the space around him in a beautiful display of swordsmanship.

His opponent smirked and rolled to the side to avoid him. As Pride Zero landed on his feet, super long ponytail and saber flashing around him like a dual halo, the other warrior rose to his feet and leapt to the attack.

00000

Cpt. Nagasaki dove to the side as the sleek, seven foot nine inch long, blue-grey missiles rocketed up into the sky. The salvo accelerated at the extreme speed offered by the most powerful, military-grade rocket propulsion, totally illegal for anyone outside the military to possess. As they passed by with their thunderous roar, the silver warrior's spear let off another 500,000 volts into one of them.

Lightning crackled through the rocket's metal skin and into its innards, causing it to detonate with an explosion much bigger than the first missile Nagasaki had zapped that day. He grunted, pumping his wings as the shockwave tossed him through the air like a rag doll. Unfortunately, its companions had already diverged too far apart for the detonation to cause a chain reaction.

Back at Elites HQ, the staccato rhythms of typing fingers and the hum of active programming teleconsoles filled the spotters' control center. Officer Jeri Cato squinted at her teleconsole. _Cpt.'s Nagasaki and Laharl, five, s-s-six, seven…seven missiles en route to the Cainson M-M-Mansion from enemy HQ. Thirty seconds to impact! _

To her right, officer Zemorah scowled at his own TC. "I'm trying to hack them, but they're just moving too fast to for me to make a connection. It's up to the 33rd and the Captain to stop those things." He glanced past Cato. "Any luck reconnecting with the others down in the base?"

Lt. Alia Sorores shook her head, biting her lip as her fingers flashed over the keyboard. For once, the honey blonde failed to throw back a sharp retort. Zemorah blinked and bent over his work, dark green eyes wide.

00000

Pride Zero hopped over his smaller opponent's slashing beam saber and brought his own shining blade down and across in a decapitation attempt. The other warrior dove to the left, under the huge Z-Saber, and cartwheeled. Both feet lashed out towards the larger opponent's face as he fell, forcing the man to arch his back to avoid Zero's metal boots. He landed off-balance, and the other warrior slashed Pride across the knee.

In the next instant the smaller fighter gasped and choked, his enemy's beam saber plunged through him to the hilt. Pride Zero flexed his sword arm and brought the blond in close, twitching and screaming as the huge Z-Saber cut further through his body.

"Any last words, infidel?"

"…" Zero grimaced and brought up his sword arm, but the giant warrior grabbed his wrist and twisted the Z-Saber out of his hand.

"One more chance. Beg for mercy." Pride Zero grinned toothily.

Zero opened his mouth, closed it, sneered, and spat in the crimson warrior's face.

Both men screamed, one thrown across the room with a hole in his chest, the other wiping the spittle from his cheek with the back of his hand. The smaller Zero's beam saber skittered across the floor into his hand as he stood up, his wounds already patching themselves.

The giant Zero charged, his booted feet slamming and sliding across the ground in a swordsman's staccato dance of death. His saber spun and slashed through the air, his ponytail swirled behind him, and the warrior bore down on his opponent like the most lethal ballet dancer in human history. The smaller man smirked and charged to meet him.

They clashed again, and again, and again, and each time Pride Zero gained another nick, cut, or bruise. Many times his enemy came close to death. Impaled, dismembered, spine shattered, time after time he recovered just fast enough to avoid oblivion and come back for more. The process went on for minutes that stretched into hours. As they crisscrossed the registrar again and again, shining data covered the floor, evaporating to leave an ugly, mudlike residue on the beautiful mosaic.

Then it happened. Pride Zero, bleeding from dozens of place and roaring like a wild boar, twitched the wrong way as he stabbed towards his smaller self. Zero dodged the attack by a hair's breadth and thrust under the giant's shield, plunging the Z-Saber deep into his gut.

"Infidel," the giant sputtered, sneering.

"Maverick." Zero pushed and twisted, his countenance locked in a grimace.

After a moment he stepped back, pulling out the beam saber as he did so. Pride Zero grunted and remained standing as the flood of data from his wounds slowed to a stream, then a trickle, then stopped altogether. Still, his body remained both intact and upright, his sapphire eyes glaring down at his smaller self.

"You targeted my movement processors. I, the great Zero, will never forgive you, scum."

"You talk too much." Zero dropped his kite shield to hold the Z-Saber in both hands. Straining his muscles and sinews to the breaking point, the warrior cut down and across his opponent's bulky legs at the knees, then clove the man's head in half as he fell. The massive ponytail fell loosely to the floor at Zero's feet, in a pool of its owner's blood.

As Pride's remains collapsed in a shimmering heap, the remaining Zero looked around the grandiose registrar. Their battle had swept away all but a few of the people in the crowd; despite the bloodstains, the warrior could once again make out the picture shown in the gemstone mosaic.

It was a portrait of himself, all of himself. As the room began to fade at the edges, Zero counted no less than six versions of himself, arranged like an honor guard around a central figure. Two versions the warrior had already met and destroyed; one he was; and three more he had not yet met.

Located in the center, set in a glittering, stylized background now covered in blood, lay Greenie's image, picked out in emeralds, diamonds, and a variety of other colors for accents and detail work. Greenie Doppler, the boy whose life Megaman Zero had taken over seven years ago.

00000

"Ridiculous poser. Thinks he can get away with it? Die, die die, oh no, nonononono that's bad, firewalls up up up, ha can't catch me, gingerbread milktastic intestinal worm…" Flash vibrated like the picture on a broken television set, his light amber gaze dancing to and fro to collect the data from all seven of his teleconsole's monitors at once. "Loserloserloserloserloserloserloserloserlosergonnadie. Nooo, how could he see it coming, it's a bridge too soon, puppies!"

A video feed popped up on one of the monitors. Flash's rant and his typing continued uninterrupted, but his sister's dark amber eyes widened at the sight.

"What…are those missiles?"

Officer Katarina Casselini looked to the screen at which the brunette pointed. "Yep. Hey, Flash, those are yours, right?"

The undead programmer shook his head. "Nope. They're coming for us. Activating maximum defense mode." For a moment, the tenor of his keystrokes changed, and the brunet bared his teeth at the screen. "Oh. Maybe not. Uh, sis, Kittie, that freaker's hack is blocking me from using the house shield or AMS. I can't override him unless I cut loose my Zerglings and leave the police high 'n dry. Cappy and his flier friends'll have to take this. But even if they scrag out—" he gestured, and Iris found herself encapsulated in a grey deadstone sphere—"you're gonna live through this no matter what. Kat, get ready for a fight. Those aren't all normal missiles."

The slightly feline female's eyes widened, but she nodded and turned to her young charge, putting a hand on the barrier. "Don't worry, Miss Cainson. Your brother and I'll keep you safe."

Flash nodded and continued ranting at his brilliantly wily enemy. Iris beat on the inside of the deadstone sphere and opened her mouth to shout, but both her voice and her fists stopped dead at the translucent grey walls of her protective prison. Helpless to escape, she watched her brother's teleconsole and waited for the explosions that would turn her house to dust.


	29. Chapter 28: Survival

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Survival**

Zero walked the plain once again, the image of the mosaic playing through his mind over and over again. Six Zeros, one Greenie amidst them all.

After a time, the warrior glimpsed a dot on the flat horizon. He strode towards it, and the dot gradually grew larger and larger in his vision; then abruptly it rose into the sky and began to move away.

Zero stopped, frowning at the sight, and sprinted forwards full tilt. The dot streaked away like a shot, but not fast enough to outrun him. Slowly, he closed the distance between them and gained a closer view of the object.

It was a perfect sphere the size of a large house, with no visible means of support or propulsion, like a cloud created by a woefully inexperienced weather god. Scudding away from him at about a hundred yards off the ground, the sphere's smooth, glossless surface bore no readily apparent marks or blemishes. Zero hunted it across the featureless plain.

Flash's voice came to him. "It's too far up to jump. Why're you chasing it?"

"It's retreating." The warrior kept running.

"Need a way up?"

"Yes."

"Huh. See that line ?"

"What line?"

"That one. Coming dow-wnn-d-down from the sphere. Ahem. There's another one on top that goes up to the sky. It's like a happy hollow rubber ball with a string all the  through the middle."

Zero looked more closely. From his point of view, the sphere's curvature obscured its top, but he saw now the line trailing down from the bottommost point of the sphere. Its lower end faded seamlessly into the ground. The warrior dashed for it and grabbed hold.

The sphere slowed to a stop horizontally, then zipped straight up on its anchor line. Zero cursed and started climbing the vertical rope hand over hand. His objective quickly disappeared into the sky, but the young man continued climbing without a word or a pause.

Days passed as he climbed. Flash's glitchy avatar did not speak to him again. Weeks blended into months, and months into years, and still he climbed relentlessly upwards.

Finally, after a little less than a decade, Zero discerned the end to his hunt. The sphere hung motionless above him, a speck on the edge of sight. Then, as he watched, it started to drop towards him at what could easily turn out to be his terminal velocity.

The warrior unsheathed his Z-Saber and loosened his grip on the line. He started to slide down faster and faster and the sphere ballooned hugely in his vision as it hurtled nearer. They collided with a noise like hot stone shattering, or like bones and armor splintering into twisted fragments.

00000

The Doctor glanced over at Zero's immobile form. He chuckled.

"Idiot child. Your own head is a terrible place to be, isn't it?"

He looked back at the screen and blinked, his expression tightening. "Shoot. Dang that crazy Cainson and all his dang hacks. Hmm. New plan. Try blocking this, child."

00000

_Cpt.'s Nagasaki and Laharl, five, s-s-six, seven…seven missiles en route to the Cainson M-M-Mansion from enemy HQ. Thirty seconds to impact!_

_Roger that, Cato. Moving to intercept,_ replied police warrior Cpt. Laharl Nero. He directed another message towards the rest of the 33rd Elite Brigade. _Follow my lead, men. _

Laharl dove headfirst towards the city from among the flashing storm clouds above. His black, short-sleeved shirt and pants, thin Kevlar body armor, and ruby red scarf whipped loudly in the rushing air. The police warrior's angular black helmet shielded his bright red eyes, pointy ears, and wild blue hair, but wind rushed freely over the dark chocolate-colored skin of his forearms and sandaled feet. He flew without any apparent means of propulsion and carried only a green broadsword for a weapon. Upon sighting the missiles in question, Laharl grinned into his scarf and angled his descent to catch them up.

They were grayish blue, and measured between seven and nine feet in length, some longer or wider than others. They travelled in a loosely pyramidal formation, scattered over roughly 75 yards of length and 50 yards of height and width in the air. Nagasaki's lightning attacks had already detonated the pyramid's tip, but the rest of the dread salvo remained on course towards the Cainson mansion. Cpt. Laharl and his wing shot towards them, straining every nerve to stop the missiles in time.

Lt. Storm Noctua flanked his captain on one side, squinting in the morning light. He wasn't a human with owlish traits. He was an owl with human traits. The 5'7" bird man folded his wings close to his brown feathered body and clenched his curved beak. Lt. Lombardi, on Laharl's other flank, differed physically from his fellow lieutenant only in avian species. The falcon warrior gazed narrowly at their target and twitched his tailfeathers to begin his own dive. Each bird man, like Nagasaki, flew much, much faster than normal wings could possibly propel them.

Behind them, Lt. Malcomson twitched his jet's dual joysticks and popped the safety catch off a trigger. _P__reparación de contramedidas__. ¿Permiso de enganchar?_

Cpt. Laharl unsheathed his broadsword, its neon green blade glowing as he zoomed in towards the missile salvo. _Si, __Teniente. Fuego en la voluntad. Noctua, right flank. Lombardi, left flank. Don't let anything escape. I'll take the lead targets. Let's go!_

He accelerated to four times the speed of sound, leaving the rest of the 33rd Elites in his proverbial dust. Malcomson activated the promised countermeasures, and two of the enemy missiles disintegrated into dust with a fizzle. Antimissiles shot from the jet's bomb bays and detonated two more, but the remaining three targets swerved out of the way to dodge the pilot's attacks.

Noctua descended on one of the stray missiles, talons reaching for a specific spot on the device's metal skin. Out of the corner of his black-brown eye, the owlish warrior saw that Lombardi had already reached his target and begun to change its course. Cpt. Laharl waved his sword around in a quick circle, and a whirlwind shot from the blade into the lead target, shredding it into exploding pieces.

By this time Cpt. Nagasaki, his armor carrying a few scars from the shrapnel of his last target, had recovered his balance in the air and taken up the chase towards the rest of the salvo. Several hundred yards behind the airborne 33rd, the silver warrior watched as the falcon-like Lombardi beat his wings and pulled his missile up and away from its original course. Automatically his gaze trailed upwards to its new destination, and the policeman's scarred visage paled.

Lt. Lombardi had pulled the missile directly into Lt. Malcomson's flight path. In a heartbeat, the heavily armed fighter jet and the warhead collided with an explosion ten times more powerful than any other that day.

As his fellow police warrior vaporized at the epicenter of the blast, the falcon warrior rode the winds towards Lt. Noctua. Cpt. Nagasaki watched, face frozen and golden eyes wide, as both bird men dove with talons outstretched: one for the last of the missiles, the other for his comrade in arms.

00000

His arms and legs braced against something hard and dark on either side of him, Zero stared down through the jagged, gaping hole in the sphere's outer shell. To one side, the anchor line zipped soundlessly through a tiny aperture in the wall. No noise of rushing air indicated whether the sphere really moved along the rope, or the rope simply moved through the sphere. Further, the flat plain visible through Zero's saber-cut entryway continued flat and infinite in all directions. This, and the plain's utter emptiness, left the crimson warrior no way to judge his and the Sphere's distance above its surface, or even the speed of their descent.

The warrior frowned and spat. The globule of spittle shot through the air in a straight line for roughly thirty feet and hit the wall next to the entrance break, without speeding or slowing down on the way. He himself felt totally weightless. Therefore, either gravity had been suspended, or the sphere and all its contents (including the warrior and his spit) had entered free fall. Without any air resistance to slow its descent, the sphere would accelerate without limit towards the ground.

Zero's hand-over-hand climb up the anchor line had taken nearly a decade. The fall to ground would take a few hours. And at the end of that fall…

The warrior shuddered and looked around at the crowded interior of the sphere, or what he could see of it. Very little light crept through the hole in the bottom, but it and the white glow of his Z-Saber illuminated his immediate surroundings well enough to make out a general picture.

Zero stood braced in one corner of a room several floors away from the tough outer shell. As the sphere shot towards him, the warrior had weakened its shell with a couple of slashes and burst through into the interior. At that point everything had turned into a dim blur of smashes, cuts, bruises, and at least three broken bones. His own wounds had healed, but the bare blackstone walls, floors, and ceilings he'd encountered on the way in had not been so lucky. The blond noticed now the dust and rubble floating weightlessly all around him, further obscuring his vision.

He looked harder at his surroundings. Based on the size of the sphere as seen from the outside, these few chambers made up only a small fraction of its volume. Zero loosened his stance and pushed off of the wall, floating freely through the wreckage-laden air. The warrior batted a couple of chunks of stone out of his path, and by so doing pushed himself into a new course according to Newton's third law (for every action there is a reaction). Now turning end over end in the air, the blond frowned.

"I hate this place."

"Then die, intruder."

With those words, another Zero flowed through the wall like a ghost, thrusting a coal-black spear at his saber-wielding opponent. Zero gasped as the weapon's icy head burst through his chest, instantly freezing the flow of data through his body.

00000

Celestia's foxfire poured down the corridor, melting Vile's thick, clinging coffin of ice. Kurosaki's body disappeared in the white hot torrent of flames. Kai and Matt ducked behind the corner to escape certain death. Both members of the X Force flinched as the peripheral heat instantly gave each of their faces a lovely cherry-red burn.

Lt. Picard, some distance down the hallway, made a face at the oncoming wall of flames and swerved into a side corridor. There were a couple of cultist warriors hiding there, but the policeman dashed by before they could react. One of the ill-fated fighters failed to notice the pair of small missiles trailing behind the stylishly armored lieutenant; as he turned and raised his gun to fire at the man, one of the missiles hit him in the small of the back. Both the missile and the cultist disintegrated in an instant.

The other warrior ducked away, and the second missile of the pair continued on its unending quest to strike down Picard. Glancing backwards, the policeman's eyes widened as he saw the first cultist disappear from sight. He fired over his shoulder with his pistol as he ran, but without a chance to aim properly the shots went wild. The missile crept ever closer.

Picard sighed and looked ahead. The corridor ended in an open gateway to another room, so he couldn't expect to dodge the missile with another wall kick. He holstered the pistol, drew his main gauche, and lashed out at a crack in the blackrock wall to one side.

The blade lodged deep in the stone. Using the stout little weapon as a springlike stop for his momentum, the purple armored lieutenant heaved with his arms, kicked with his legs, and hurtled back down the hallway. Picard's shoulders and elbows screamed with pain at the strain of it, but he successfully dodged past the oncoming missile. It swerved around to follow him once again, and the two of them made their way back towards the lieutenant's embattled comrades.

00000

Celestia's foxfire stopped after only a second or two. Vile sprang to his feet, wobbling a little off balance after the extreme and sudden shifts in temperature. He stepped back from the sight in front of him.

Kurosaki grimaced at his opponent from behind one of Matt's barriers, completely unhurt by Celestia's flame attack. Then the barrier disappeared, and the orange haired policeman leapt to the attack. "This one's for Smith!"

Vile put out a hand as if to catch the man's huge falchion, but the weapon swooped in under his arm and bit into his dark violet chestplate. Kurosaki grinned and put his left hand on the blade's back, shoving it deeper through his opponent's dense plate mail and into the flesh beyond.

The violet warrior fell backwards, data spurting freely from the long, shallow cut. He grabbed Kurosaki's wrist and twisted on the way down, simultaneously pulling the policeman along with him and pinning his huge falchion flat between them. Caught in such close quarters, the police warrior abandoned the weapon and wrestled his enemy for a killer hold. Vile's data drenched them both as they struggled on the floor.

Meanwhile, Matt and Kai rounded the corner of the T-shaped intersection. The younger Haolin still wore a shimmering robe and carried no weapon, while the older had changed back to his standard blue armor and arm cannon. The X Force looked straight past Officer Kurosaki and Vile, seeing only the voluptuous Lady Celestia Kyuubit: regional administrator of the Cult of Sigma and the one who had murdered their sister in cold blood.

Before they could react to the sight of her, the vixen grinned at them and gestured, springing her trap. Three glass beads at the warriors' feet detonated in a triple explosion of scalding steam.

A shimmering barrier automatically jumped up around Matt's robed form, but Kai had no such protection. The blast smashed into him with full force, mangling armor, muscles, bones, and processors alike on the way. Borne on the concussive wave, his broken body slammed into the ceiling and collapsed limp to the floor while the superheated water vapor boiled his flesh.

The younger warrior spun to face his brother, his muscled frame tightening like a spring. "No, Kai! You—" he switched a thousand-megawatt glare on Celestia—"you monster! I'll kill you until there's nothing left to kill!"

The strawberry blonde laughed and flicked back her hair, pulling out her nine tailed whip as she did so. "Hah, you're Malon's little brother, aren't you. She was so cute before I slaughtered her. Like a little doll, but…you know, I don't think I've ever seen my men have so much fun with just a doll. After a while, she even stopped screaming."

"Shut up and die!" Matt's form blurred and he charged. As he did so, something man-sized, purple and very fast zipped by, trailed by something much smaller and even faster. The warrior's gaze didn't shift from Celestia for even an instant.

She, on the other hand, saw Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard and his unshakable travelling companion coming and ducked away, her whip reaching out on its own to stop him. The police warrior's epée lashed out at her as he passed, severing three tails of the vixen's whip and nicking her soft white neck. Celestia dodged the following missile by only inches.

The bleeding vixen cursed and threw down a kunai knife between herself and Matt, and the air wavered around her. Armed and armored like Captain Nagasaki, the young warrior stopped and gritted his teeth as the vixen's form vanished from sight. "NO!"

As he shouted, his spear sparked and let loose a massive, uncontrolled blast of electricity that grounded itself in the walls and floor. Matt blinked, forehead creased, as a woman's tortured soprano scream split the air of the apparently empty hallway in front of him. He bared his teeth and charged the spear to fire again.

A surge of foxfire burst from the illusory emptiness and took the young man full in the chest.

Meanwhile, Vile struggled on the floor, caught from behind in a full nelson by the orange-haired Officer Kurosaki. The policeman heaved and pushed in an attempt to break Vile's neck; the two warriors' armor grated and squealed with the pressure of the deadlock.

While they grappled for control, Picard kicked off a handy wall and reversed direction to dodge past the trailing missile yet again. The lieutenant dashed towards Celestia with the little warhead trailing behind him; her empty-hallway illusion worked in only one direction. His lavender eyes widened at the sight of Matt falling to the ground, screaming as his red hot chestplate burned into his body.

"I won't let you do this," he whispered, setting his sights on Celestia's unprotected, already wounded neck. He summoned a new main gauche for his off hand and twirled the epée in his right.

The vixen's ears perked and she jerked around, bringing the whip's six remaining tails to bear on the approaching purple streak. He leapt like a dancer and struck like a killer, slicing the hungry, thorned appendages into wriggling pieces.

This time around, orange fluid spilled from the whip with every cut, covering the lieutenant's slender sword and stout dagger in sizzling acid. The weapons dissolved before he could land even a single blow on his foxy enemy. Picard blinked, speechless as his momentum carried him past the vixen, away from both the trailing missile and the last opportunity to save his subordinate.

Celestia sidestepped with a smile and turned to her stricken opponent, flicking her wrist to reload the whip program. "Sorry, Matt, Looks like your little friend's got better things to do than save you. I'll finish you off now."

00000

Zero watched the spear's head pass straight through his chest, his full plate mail armor offering no resistance whatsoever to the icy blade. It made no wound, no rupture in his body, but poured a ghastly, unearthly chill into his flesh. Most of the warrior's processors froze up instantly.

As the weapon plunged on through him into the wall, Zero's wrist flicked of its own accord, bringing his shining Z-Saber against the spear of freezing darkness. It swept straight through its haft as though the spear were made of smoke, and the abysmal weapon flickered and disappeared from existence.

Zero floated weightlessly through the air, eyes flickering dully around the chamber, but couldn't find the enemy that had stuck the spear in him. A breathy male voice spoke from the dim.

"Intruder. Threat. Invader. I'll kill you. Nothing can hurt me. This is my fortress. I am Zero."

The blond looked in the direction of the voice, but it shifted from one part of the room to the other. "I am Zero. Show yourself, Maverick."

"No. They all want to kill me. I won't let them. I'll survive. All the threats, they stay outside. You came in. You die."

Zero detected a flicker at the edge of his vision, and sluggishly brought the Z-Saber around to parry the incoming spear. The ghostly weapon angled around the blade and struck him in the shoulder, numbing the warrior's shield arm. Gasping, he looked into the eyes of his enemy.

Another Zero looked back at him, his eyes nothing more nothing more than a pair of featureless, milky white orbs. Pale and watery, they were the only solid part of him; sculpted black smoke made up the rest of his body. Zero cut at the spear again, and his opponent vanished along with the weapon.

He struggled to reposition himself, but most of his processors remained locked up by the strength-stealing cold. The warrior growled, redirecting his remaining processing power to thought and speech instead of movement.

"Adrenaline, Pride…Fear." He blinked. "Fear. That's what you are, Maverick. You can survive any attack."

"Ha! Ha! Ha! I knew it! I knew you would try. I'll destroy you first!" The voice came from everywhere.

Zero shook his head, redirecting his processing power again, and twitched his legs to kick off a floating chunk of stone. He soared weightlessly towards the exit. Fear Zero appeared to one side, hiding in the shadows with his spear held ready.

Zero waved the Z-Saber and the phantom shrank back, pallid eyeballs wide. "Where are you going? I won't let you get any help!"

"I'm leaving." Zero shrugged as his chest and shoulder slowly warmed up, freeing more of his processors.

Fear Zero narrowed his featureless eyes, ghostly knuckles tightening on the haft of his weapon. "Never come back. I'll kill you. I will."

The blond shrugged again and drifted out through the break he'd made to enter the sphere. He caught the lip of the opening with his sword hand and waited for the chill to leave his body altogether. To one side, the anchor rope zipped through its tiny, separate aperture at ever greater speeds as the sphere fell to the infinite grey plain below.

Once he had regained full use of his processors, the warrior steadied himself with his feet and left hand, putting his back to the approaching ground and his sword hand near the anchor line where it reeled at supersonic speeds into the sphere. Very slowly, he brought his beam saber's light wreath edge into the barest contact with the line. Nothing seemed to happen.

Zero pushed the blade in a little farther, perpendicular to the rope. With a sound of metal discontent, the beam saber jerked out of its wielder's hand, rebounded with a clank off the wall next to the anchor line's aperture, and drifted away into free fall. Zero opened his hand, and the weapon returned to him. Its metal core blade had been warped slightly at the point of contact with the rushing rope.

Fear Zero's voice came from behind the wall of the sphere. "What are you doing? We'll die. We'll die! You too!"

"Maybe. Maybe not. Stop me. Or abandon the sphere. Can't you fly, ghost?"

There was a deafening silence from the other side. Zero nodded, brought the Z-Saber back, and hacked horizontally at the anchor line with all his strength. With a double twang, the weapon shattered and the rope snapped free. Fear Zero shrieked, and the sphere began to disintegrate around him as pieces of the other warrior's blade bounced and scattered into the air.

Zero nodded and called his Z-Saber back into existence. The air around him wavered and swirled, and he appeared standing on the featureless plain, unhurt. He watched his intangible counterpart writhe in agony on the ground.

"Idiot Maverick. Without your fortress, you can't even survive as a ghost."

Fear Zero's head jerked back in a silent scream, and he burned away in the cold gray light of Zero Doppler's mind.

00000

On one of the screens of Flash's teleconsole, the brunet's vicious swarm of Zerglings ripped through another few dozen Gutsmen. Culled by traps, by the Doctor's cunning hacks, by cultist warriors, and by previous waves of the remote-controlled, tanklike yellow fighters, the undead programmer's summoned monsters now numbered less than sixty. Nevertheless, with every passing second, they plunged deeper into the cultists' HQ and shredded more of the vulnerable enemy programmers remotely manning the defenses. Elite police warriors followed behind in their several brigades, supporting the swarms wherever necessary.

On another screen, Lt. Lombardi pulled his missile into Malcomson's jet and sailed away before the ensuing explosion. The falcon man immediately swooped in towards Lt. Noctua, talons extended, and struck him down before anyone could react.

Another video feed appeared on the same screen, showing a new development; people were gathering by the hundreds, the thousands, to town central. They came on foot, piled out of vehicles of every description, and a few teleported straight into the area. They carried weapons, but didn't do anything violent right then. No police showed up to stop them.

Yet it was the last screen on which Flash, Kat, and Iris focused. A video feed suddenly popped up over the flashing data tables, showing the 71st's battle for survival deep in the bowels of the cultists' HQ. Another feed popped up half a second later, showing Zero's immobile body in the foreground and an old man at a teleconsole in the background.

The police warrior gasped at the spectacle of her fellow Elites teetering on the knife's edge between life and death. Iris peered through her translucent greystone barrier at Zero's helpless form, hands over her mouth. Flash's teeth chattered; only he managed to speak.

"HA! Ibrokeyourfirewallsyoufrigging------IwinIwinIwinIwinIwinIwin—no, scrud, Matt's gonna die—bad foxy lady—frickin' closed loop virus—get off me!—Iaiai, I know whatta do!" _Brace yaself, Cappy! It's all on board the wiggity X-Press! _


	30. Chapter 29: Exposed

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: Exposed**

Zero walked the plain. As usual, nothing but him stirred a single pixel of the flatness. His armored legs swung in time with the beating of his processors, and the warrior gazed off into the horizon. After a few short years of travel, he perceived another of himself with someone else, forty miles away.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Zero was there, standing before them.

The other Zero's hair fell around his naked upper body like a golden waterfall, all the way to the generic pair of jeans that were his only clothing. Behind the shimmering blond veil, muscles rippled under the perfect tan skin of his arms, shoulders, neck, and back.

Zero's companion wore even less than he did. Armored Zero peered at her face and form, but it shifted continually from one woman's to the next: Malon, Celes, Kat, Iris, and a dozen others he remembered by sight but not name. She, whoever she was, and the other him were intent on each other to the exclusion of all else.

Armored Zero drew the Z-Saber, donned his kite shield, and waited, but the other blond remained focused on the woman. Eventually, the warrior blinked.

"You are Lust…Adrenaline said to say 'hi.'"

At this, Lust Zero paused in his activities with the woman and turned to face himself.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, didn't see you there. Don't look so serious. You know, I heard what you did to the others, and I don't care." He stroked the woman's hair, and suddenly there were two of her as well; one in his embrace, the other sashaying up to the armored Zero, a half-smile playing across her lips. "There's no reason for us to fight. Plenty to go around."

Zero stepped away from the woman, glaring. She smiled wider, her lips parted slightly, and advanced in closer. The warrior brought the Z-Saber up between them.

"You are false. Disappear."

She laughed. "You're so silly. I'm as real as you are. If you don't believe me, come feel for yourself."

"Fine." He cut her in half, and she pixilated into nothingness with a short scream. Zero walked up to the other him, beam saber raised. Lust Zero grinned and pushed away his woman. She stood a distance away and started to cry, her bare shoulders shaking with cute little sobs. Lust leered at her a moment before he addressed the other Zero.

"So that's how you get your kicks. To each his own." He cocked his head. "But now what? Will you try to kill me? Flash's voice came earlier and told me you might."

Zero blinked and scowled at Lust's mention of the brunet's avatar program. "You don't belong here. She—" he gestured with the beam saber—"doesn't belong here. And if that voice helped you, I'll kill it too."

"That's ridiculous. And I have as much right to be here as you do."

"Arm and armor yourself, Maverick. Prepare to die."

Lust Zero laughed. "I don't need weapons or plate mail to win. I've always been the strongest. I beat you on the Final Weapon and I'll beat you again here."

Zero snarled and slashed at him, hard and fast.

00000

Celestia drew back her arm and lashed Matt's prostrate form with the whip. Its nine spiky tails lashed around him and tightened to leave the brunet totally pinned. Then the whip's many thorns and nodules leaked their orange acid onto his silversteel full plate, and the fluid burned through into his vulnerable flesh. Celestia sneered and popped a glass bead into the silver warrior's open, screaming mouth.

At that moment, Flash's teleport hack broke through both the Doctor's firewall and the cultist HQ's router. Cpt. Yamato Nagasaki crashed into the rosy armored vixen at his full flying speed, then discovered the joys of trying to slow down one's flight in a hallway narrower than one's eight foot wingspan.

First of all, his eleven foot spear caught on the blackrock wall and ripped free from his grasp, while Celestia's whip jerked out of her hand to cling to Matt's tortured body. Then, carrying her along for the ride, the silver warrior crashed heavily into one wall, then the floor, bounced up to the ceiling, hit the floor again, and finally rolled to a stop after forty yards of violent suffering.

Down the corridor, Vile broke Officer Kurosaki's wrestling hold and smashed his armored elbow into the policeman's face. The officer growled, his broken nose leaking a sudden stream of data, then caught the violet warrior's wrist and twisted it behind his back. He proceeded to smash the man's helmet-encased head repeatedly into the wall.

Vile chose this moment to fire his jump jets. He thumped headfirst into the wall while the reaction force of the jets threw Kurosaki off him. The violet warrior rolled to his feet, drawing a .460 magnum from his boot on the way, and his orange haired opponent took the chance to regain his balance and call his falchion back to hand. Officer Kurosaki swung his sword at the same moment Vile fired.

Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard rounded the corner at full speed, running briefly up on the wall to help change his direction. He dashed down the corridor past Kai's broken, boiled form, Cramer's bullet-ridden corpse, and Smith's shattered body, taking care not to tread on them or their weapons. Vile's missile still followed behind him, as unshakable as an attention starved younger brother but much faster and more likely to cause instant death.

The lieutenant sprinted towards the dead end, for the wall through which Zero had fallen. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Alia's voice beamed into the warrior's communication buffer.

_John, what are you doing? Take out the missile and help the others, you lazy bum!_

_Good to hear from you too, honey. We need Zero's help and I'm getting him back, _Picard replied. _Watch._

Every time that he'd wall-kicked before now, the missile had successfully turned in time to avoid contact with the wall in question. Further, when the first missile had detonated on a cultist, the man and missile had disintegrated without an actual explosion. Therefore, though the missile had amazing speed and nearly perfect maneuverability, without a blast radius it couldn't inflict damage on anything it didn't hit directly.

Picard's neck hairs prickled. He heard the roar of the thing's rocket engine approach closer and closer as they neared the end of the corridor.

_If I survive, this one's for you, Alia._

The purple clad warrior landed on the ball of one foot and pivoted to face the oncoming missile, his feet skidding on the floor. At the last moment before impact, Jean-Pierre arched his back like an underpaid acrobat and watched the thing shoot by his face.

It curved in towards him, passed within inches of his nose, within centimeters of his stylish helmet. Then it impacted the wall just beyond and disintegrated, taking the barrier with it. Without the deadstone wall to stop him, Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard somersaulted backwards into the room beyond.

The Doctor blinked and glanced over at the intruder. "Well, what a surprise. I'm sorry, but you're far too late. It's all over now."

00000

The Z-Saber descended in a blindingly fast, silent diagonal arc towards Lust Zero's neck. It bounced off the man's suddenly shining body with the clanging noise of a butter knife striking an anvil.

Armored Zero blinked and hopped back to regard his smirking foe. "What is that? How are you glowing?"

Lust Zero laughed, holding out an arm to admire the pearly white aura swirling over his otherwise bare skin. "I glow the same way the Z-Saber does. And as long as I do, you can never cut me."

He leapt forwards and caught his opponent around the throat. The wreath of light around his hand began to burn through the armored warrior's bodysuit. Armored Zero gasped and choked, eyes wide.

Lust Zero bared his teeth in a grin. "Every second I spend dealing with you is a second I could be with a woman. I'll kill you quickly."

He lifted the warrior off the ground at arm's length and squeezed, his fingers pressing deep into Zero's throat. The warrior dropped his beam saber and shield to grab Lust's arm, and his aura started to burn through Zero's gloves. The armored blond gripped harder and used the leverage to heave his legs in a double kick at Lust's crotch.

His metal boots clanged off the aura there like sticks off a steel wall. Lust Zero shook his head, frowning.

"That's where my protection is strongest, idiot. I'm insulted." He hauled the other blond in close, bringing them nose to nose. "Did the voice tell you? There's a way out of here. The one of us that controls Greenie, controls the body. I wouldn't have stood in your way, idiot, but you had to pick a fight with me. Die."

His pearly wreath of light burned all the way through the throat of armored Zero's bodysuit. The blond kicked, fought, and screamed, but his struggles grew weaker with every passing second. Finally, his limbs grew still and his body began to pixilate at the edges.

As his opponent finally gave in, Lust Zero smirked and laid a gentle kiss on the man's lips, burning them horribly. "Too bad. We could've had fun together."

With that, he tossed the decomposing body to the side and turned back to the woman. The wreath of light disappeared from his body. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to look at his stinking husk a second longer."

She pouted at him. "You're mean. I hate you."

"I know. That's part of the fun," Lust Zero laughed, and took her in his arms. She struggled a little but quickly gave into his kisses and caresses.

They vanished from that part of the featureless grey, leaving Zero's dying body behind.

00000

_Captain! Behind you!_

The wind screaming past his pointed ears, Cpt. Laharl looked over his shoulder. What he saw froze his blood, then brought it to a boil.

Cpt. Nagasaki was nowhere in sight. Lt. Malcomson's jet had been reduced to smoke and ballistic fragments. Lt. Noctua spiraled towards the ground, one of his wings cruelly torn by his fellow police officer, Lt. Lombardi's talons. The traitorous falcon warrior rode the last missile now, thrusting his beak into its metal skin to download a patch into its programming.

Laharl snarled and reversed course, swinging his arms. Hurricane force winds slashed towards Lombardi and the missile, but the turncoat police warrior flapped his wings and pulled the warhead out of the path of his superior officer's attacks. As the falcon man's patch took effect, the missile's speed increased fivefold, shooting straight past Laharl towards the Cainson mansion.

Watching it all through Java's teleconsole, Antoine ten Haaft slammed his fist down on the desk. "Excellent! Separate the warhead and ready the teleport command. Stag, Woodman, Lowe, ready your weapons. We're going to kill that crazy ------ and put his wretched sister in her place," the yellow armored warrior leered.

The warriors obeyed their squad leader's orders. Java twitched and nodded, typing in the appropriate commands. On the scarred programmer's TC, the last missile broke into two stubby pieces. As Lombardi leapt off, the forward piece tumbled towards the ground while the rear piece rocketed into the Cainson mansion and detonated.

Smoke filled the air with a deafening blast. Rubble shot into the sky and left scars in the neighboring buildings and street. One policeman, too busy scaring away the street traffic to escape to a safe distance, took a chunk of stone to the leg and instantly became an amputee.

Meanwhile, the second piece of the missile smacked into the ground a few dozen yards from ground zero. It disappeared with a splash of light and a viscous glooping noise, and a holographic circle of runes rose from the impact zone.

"Beam us out!" Haaft took a two-handed battleaxe from its sheath on his back. "For the Lady!"

Java gibbered something under his breath. A glowing circle of runes flashed into existence around the yellow-armored Haaft, the treelike Woodman, the hunchbacked Stag Lucanidante, and the pale winged Izzy Lowe. The cultists pixilated and evaporated from sight.

Then, in a few seconds' time, they rematerialized within the circle of runes shown on the scarred programmer's monitor. Guided by their spotters, the policemen on guard outside the Cainson mansion's smoking remains opened fire on the cultists with all manner of weaponry. Woodman threw out his arms, and a hemispherical barrier of living, superdense oak wood sprouted from his body and shielded his comrades from every blow.

Haaft tightened his grip on the axe. "Stag, carve us a tunnel into the basement level. If they're still alive, that's where they'll be. Woodman, give us a three second lead and plug the hole before you follow. Lowe, keep your butt out of the line of fire. Move!"

Izzy Lowe quivered and nodded, his pale skin illuminating the inside of Woodman's shield. Lucanidante thrust his clawed hands into the pavement and twisted his wrists slightly. The pavement, the stone beneath it, and the dirt beneath that peeled back to leave a wide, steeply sloping, rounded corridor. His armor clacking like the insectoid carapace it resembled, Lucanidante rushed down the slope to continue tunneling. Haaft followed close behind, and Lowe came up behind him, luminescent skin lighting the way to Iris, Flash, and the single warrior woman guarding them both.

00000

Alone on the grey plain, Zero's rotting fingers twitched and began to regenerate. The rest of him quickly followed suit as his head reestablished communication with his body. Only a few minutes later, the warrior stood and picked up his weapon and shield. His shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

"He's too strong. I was defeated." Zero raised his eyes to the flat horizon.

"I cannot destroy him in battle. Therefore, I will not destroy him in battle."

00000

Kurosaki swung his falchion at the same time Vile fired his .46 magnum. The bullet buried itself in the shoulder plate of the police warrior's bone white armor, throwing his swing wild. As a result, the policeman's blade missed his opponent entirely. Worse, as he pulled the blade around for a backswing, Kurosaki's ankle twisted on the broken mess of the floor and he fell.

Before he could recover, Vile shot the prone policeman three more times, one bullet shattering his knee, another piercing his belly, and the third grazing his helmet. Finally, the violet warrior took careful aim on Officer Ichigo Kurosaki's handsome face.

The cultist's head perked up and he leapt away, borne on his jump jets, as Smith aimed and fired his much used double cannon. Lying on the ground, his wounds patching and healing under his distant spotter's ministrations, the burly pink officer grimaced as the monstrous shells tore into Vile's leg armor instead of rending his torso. With a face that had been frowning since his christening, Officer Sue Smith fired again, forcing the violet warrior to dodge away once more.

Forty-five yards or so down the corridor, Nagasaki lifted himself to his feet. The sturdily built, heavily armored police warrior grunted and flinched as pain lanced through the many bruises acquired in his unexpected appearance in the cultist headquarters. He drew his longsword and glanced dully around him, staggering with the effort to keep his balance.

Celestia, thrown a few feet further than the Captain in the final roll, tried to push herself upright. She screamed breathlessly and collapsed as the pain from multiple broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a twisted vertebrae, a shattered hip, several bruised processors, a great deal of bruises in general, and a splintered humerous flared into life. In her last moment of consciousness, the vixen made a precise gesture with her fingers. A shining shield surrounded her like a huge soap bubble.

"This isn't the end, scum…"

Her delicate features relaxed as the world went dark.

00000

Lust Zero gasped and choked as the Z-Saber stabbed down into his back, straight through his chest, through the woman, and into the mattress beneath. The bed and the woman faded away, leaving the blond lying facedown on the flat grey plain, his enemy's beam saber sticking through him into the ground.

Armored Zero twisted the weapon in the wound and heaved with both arms, forcing Lust upright. Supported only by a razor sharp blade wreathed in burning light energy, his feet dangling freely above the ground, the blond quivered from head to toe. His face contorted in a spasm of pure shock and agony.

"Lust. You left yourself vulnerable. Die." The warrior took one of Lust's thighs in hand, shifted his grip on his weapon, and used the leverage to force the Z-Saber up through his victim's chest cavity. He continued the cut up through the throat and shifted the weapon's angle to stab up into the head.

Lust Zero's body disintegrated into dust as he died. Then even the dust evaporated, leaving nothing behind.

Covered in his other self's shimmering data, Zero raised his head and sheathed his blade with a fluid flick of the wrist. "One Maverick left. Then Greenie."

The black armored warrior took up his journey across the plain one last time. The Maverick Hunter's eyes, as cold and dark as the deepest abyss, searched the horizon ceaselessly for his last two victims.

00000

Officer Katarina Casselini flinched and ducked as the mansion above them exploded into a billion pieces. Iris, inside her grey sphere, didn't feel the shockwave but blinked at the noise transmitted through the protective prison's curving wall. Her undead brother made no obvious knee-jerk response, and the basement's ceiling remained intact.

"So that's how it is, eh? Bunkers. They'll be coming through the walls next. Ehhhh—nope, no can do. Those boogers are tunneling through to us and that friggin' hypothalamus cultist hacker is still blocking me from putting up any defenses. Just a little bit and I'll have 'im pinned, but I can't take him down and help you fight too, Kat, and the policemen outside can't get in to help through all the rubble and stuff. There's four bad guys and one of you, superkitty," Flash muttered rapidly.

The beige blond blinked and grinned lopsidedly. "Well, that's hardly fair. Should be more like ten to one if they're gonna take on a girl like me. "

Flash broke into a fit of laughter in reply. "That's my furry hottie talking! Quick, it's vital that you come over here and kiss me."

Casselini's orange eyes widened. "Wha—!"

"Just do it."

"Er…"

Flash gestured, and Kat found herself in front of him before she could blink. He grabbed the front of her beige colored chain mail and pulled the voluptuous blond in for a lingering liplock. His other hand continued to type. After a moment the blonde blushed and jerked away from him.

"How did you—so strong—pervert!" she punched him in the face. Flash's neck cracked with the whiplash, but the undead programmer didn't even flinch.

"Kat, visitors." He resumed two-handed typing and glanced in the direction of one of the walls. Casselini's furry cat ears perked up and she whirled, drawing her blue-white scepter of ice. The air around its fist-sized diamond head shimmered as its temperature plummeted.

"Don't think this is over, buddy! You'll answer for that little prank sooner or later!" she called over her shoulder.

"Whatever you say, pretty kitty. Watch out for the one with the axe."

Even as he spoke, Casselini ducked and rolled aside and part of the wall exploded inwards. For a second, light blazed out from the hole like a flare from the sun. Kat held out her scepter, and the light spiraled harmlessly into its diamond head. Even without their cover of blinding light, though, Haaft's squad of warrior cultists piled out of the breach.

Stag Lucanidante came first, swinging a heavy, spiked flail and holding a glassy black orb in the other hand. Kat's first blast caught him side on, freezing the cultist beneath a rapidly thickening coat of solid ice. His bulky, frozen body half-blocked the exit to the tunnel.

Izzy Lowe squeezed out the top of the hole, his insectoid wings beating like mad to lift him to the low ceiling and avoid Casselini's next attack. The larger Antoine ten Haaft simply shattered the roadblock with a swing of his battleaxe, sending bits of his late comrade everywhere. He took a quick moment to process the situation before entering the chamber beyond.

A gangly brunet programmer with a sickeningly colored tunic sat in front of a multiscreen teleconsole near the middle of the room. Random pieces of junk filled the workbenches, boxes, and shelves everywhere else in 20' x 25'chamber. A large, translucent grey sphere stood to one side, holding what appeared to be a black-clad woman. A slightly feline, curvy woman dressed in beige chain mail and the green cape of Stormy Hill's police force crouched atop a low shelf several yards away, swinging an icy white scepter in Lowe's general direction.

Haaft dashed into the room, zigzagging across the floor towards the brunet programmer. Lowe dodged Officer Casselini's attack and flitted around the ceiling, firing purplish blue beams of light at her. Kat spun and pounced out of the way, jabbing in the commanding cultist's direction with her scepter. Hardened chunks of ice shot out of the air in front of her at the yellow-armored warrior.

He staggered as the hail slammed into his body, denting his armor and breaking several of his more important bones. As the fractures knit with a stomach-turning crackle, the cultist shrugged off the blows and charged at Flash with axe raised. Casselini yowled, gripping her weapon, and the yellow warrior slipped on a sudden layer of ice.

Haaft fell on his face, but Lowe continued to rain down hot beams of purple death, forcing the warrior woman to duck and dodge away again. Bits of the room cracked and crumbled under the impact force of the beams.

With a creak of strained timber, Woodman emerged from the mouth of the tunnel and stretched his long, leafy arms towards the blonde. Rather than scamper away, she pounced inside his reach and knocked him with the scepter before kicking off his oaken chest. The warrior's body groaned and cracked apart as his blood data expanded and froze.

Kat tumbled and somersaulted over shelves of junk, sending haphazard inventions crashing to the floor, as Lowe's blasts rained down around her. She barely looked at the flying cultist; the warrior woman saw only Haaft, rising to his feet with battleaxe in hand behind the brunet programmer.

Stuck safely inside her spherical grey prison, Iris watched what followed from only a few feet away. Officer Casselini fired off a slender spike of ice that took the yellow armored cultist in the armpit, piercing straight into his torso. Haaft stumbled with the impact but ripped the icicle out with one hand. The wound healed almost instantaneously and he proceeded to behead Flash Cainson while he typed.

Iris screamed as her brother's head sailed through the air and rolled across the rubble-covered floor. Casselini shrieked and pounced, wielding her scepter like a club.

Haaft smirked as he brought his weapon up to meet her; the two-handed battle axe possessed by far the greater reach. Its notched edge whistled in with perfect timing and clove straight through the police warrior's belly.

* * *

Author's note: I do not take responsibility for any feelings aroused in the fangirls of the audience by Lust Zero's kissing of himself. It wasn't meant to be a yaoi moment, or indicate homosexuality in Zero's personality; Lust transgresses all boundaries by its very nature, like Dracula. As it stands, I toned down Zero's lust quite a bit from what it, or he, would really be like.


	31. Chapter 30: Failure

Author's note: This is the second to last chapter. Therefore, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have gone to the trouble of giving me their input on this story. In alphabetical order, here are the names of those who took a moment of their time to tell me what they thought of "Zero: Diamond Earth."

AGF-Antoine (of rockmanamv . com) – I bet you just wish you could see Celestia as an animegirl.

AxcX (of rockmanamv . com) – Hah, no worries. I got plenty of comments after all ;)

CloverSam (of rockmanamv . com) – You little sweetie!

CyberForte – Ah, a kindred spirit.

DarkShadowSoul (of rockmanamv . com) – Your enthusiasm is always refreshing.

grandbahamut (of rockmanamv . com) – Your expression was priceless, little brother.

MikkiMouse – You were right, it is AU :)

Moku-Sama (of blue-bomber . jvmwriter . org) – I really don't deserve compliments so good.

Mysteris – I did keep it up, didn't I?

Ri2 – Whoever you are...

Weapon of Light – You're a very kind and generous soul.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty: Failure**

Zero walked the endless grey landscape of his mind one last time. His coal black armor sucked in the omnipresent twilight like a man-shaped tear in reality. His eyeballs, twin holes into a place darker than the void between the stars, searched the plain for enemies as they had since he first awoke on the featureless plain. After an uncountable period of time, the warrior's search came to an end.

The landscape shifted and morphed as it had several times before. This time, the Maverick Hunter found himself in the front room of House Doppler as it had been prior to his college days. He glanced around at the quiet, well-kept furnishings, donned his kite shield, and unsheathed his beam saber.

"Maverick! No games! Show yourself!"

There was a small sound from around the corner. Zero turned and watched, every nerve tense, as the last of his fellow incarnations walked into view.

He wore navy blue plate mail over an azure bodysuit, highlighted with robin's egg blue in the same patterns as the physical Zero Doppler's crimson and white armor. His eyes bore the icy, pale blue-green tint of a glacier in bright sunlight. The Maverick Hunter glanced at the other warrior's sheathed beam saber and kite shield and found them identical to his own, but for the difference in coloration.

"You must be the Maverick Hunter. Wrath Zero. Flash's voice told me you would come," blue Zero remarked quietly.

"I am Zero. Who are you?" the other warrior countered.

"I am also Zero. But you may call me Serenity Zero, or Peace."

Wrath Zero raised his weapon. "I'll call you dead, Maverick."

He charged up to his other self, slashing across with the Z-Saber. Serenity Zero parried the blow, sidestepped, and worked his beam saber and shield in a defensive pattern to neutralize Wrath's next series of attacks.

"Why are you fighting me?" the blue warrior asked, speaking above the constant clash of steel on steel.

"You don't belong. You are a Maverick," his dark enemy answered.

"I belong here as much as you do," Serenity replied, fending off another of the other warrior's blindingly fast offensive patterns. He moved with little strength or speed, much less than that of the Maverick Hunter, but parried, blocked, or dodged every one of his opponent's assaults without apparent difficulty. It was as through he saw each blow coming several seconds in advance.

Wrath growled and pressed the attack. "Where's Greenie?"

"I can't tell you. You would kill him, and doom us all." His opponent smiled wanly. "If you can defeat yourself, you will see him."

"Then die!"

00000

Officer Katarina Casselini didn't even feel the axe go through her stomach. She did see, for a very brief moment, Antoine ten Haaft's expression when it did. Before she died, Kat would learn to treasure that fleeting sight.

The cultist's eyes snapped wide and his head jerked back as the beige blonde warrior's pastel grey, definitely-not-cut-in-half body passed wraithlike through his own armored form. With pure feline grace, Casselini landed feet first on the floor behind him, her body regaining solidity to do so. She and Haaft paused a moment like that, crouched back to back with exactly the same stiff, pale rictus frozen on both her face and his.

Flash's head finally rolled to a stop, halfway across the room. While his decapitated body continued typing at full speed, the programmer laughed.

"Wheeee! That shoulda been a Six Flags ride back in the day! Instant sensation!"

On the screens of the undead hacker's teleconsole, the video feeds showed his Zergling swarms dwindling away, taking most of the rest of the cultists with them. Behind them, the Elite police warriors moved into the deepest depths of the fortress. One group rushed towards the place where Vile, Celestia, and the Doctor battled with the 71st Elites.

Izzy Lowe, still hovering at the ceiling, twitched spasmodically and gaped at both scenes below. "What what, what? Ner-nertz. Urk."

Casselini and Haaft jerked to life almost simultaneously, expressions shifting to match their killer intent. The beige blonde twisted around and delivered a sharp blow to his arm with her icy blue-white scepter, but before the weapon could connect the cultist thrust blindly back at her with the pointed haft of his battleaxe. Kat blinked and cursed as her body, weapon included, automatically turned ghostly grey to avoid the hit; his axe hadn't hit her, but neither had her scepter hit him.

Haaft changed his grip on the battleaxe and whirled around. _Lowe, start firing you fool!_

Casselini, solid again, dodged the cultist's ranged beam attack by pure reflex. It pierced through a locked cabinet and annihilated a small box full of vials, creating another victim out of an innocent, inanimate bystander. The splintered vials' contents evaporated away unnoticed by any of the warriors in the room.

"I'm not so easy!" Kat cried, and waved her scepter. A blast of supercooled air sprung forth from the weapon and hit Haaft point-blank.

The cultist's armored, muscular frame flew away with the force of the freezing burst and fell to the floor like an unfortunate ice sculpture: noisily. His body parts slid and scattered across the ground like the frozen chunks of meat they had become.

Seeing his commander fall, Lowe squealed and fired at Kat with his beam weapon again. She ducked behind a shelf full of Flash's things and popped up to jab with her scepter at the airborne cultist. He careened to one side to avoid the resulting hailstones, but a stray chunk of ice smashed in his skull, killing him instantly. His corpse tumbled limp to the floor.

For a moment, everything was quiet save for Flash's constant typing and the tuneless humming of his disembodied head. Officer Casselini glanced around the ravaged icebox of a workshop. The flyer's insect-winged body began to decompose; the tunneler lay in frozen pieces at the mouth of his tunnel; the tree man had been reduced to splinters; and the regenerating axe-wielder—

"What the ------!" Kat ducked under the yellow warrior's axe. Antoine ten Haaft, his body already repaired from both the sub-zero chill and the violent breakage, snarled and shoved past her towards the hacker's body and teleconsole.

"I'll cut you in half!" he roared, raising the battleaxe up for a cleaving blow. Casselini brought up her scepter and opened her mouth—

"Too late," Flash's head laughed.

The yellow cultist tumbled headlong to the floor in the middle of his charge. His axe flipped end over end and bounced harmlessly off Iris' shield. Casselini watched, mouth agape, as Antoine's arms and legs disintegrated off his body. He screamed and passed out, a mere torso with head attached.

"He won't ever regenerate from that, ever. It's a virus," Flash told her with a faint smile. It morphed into a frown. "Kat, come over here and kiss me again."

The beige blond police warrior's furry ears stood up on end as she turned to face the lonely head. "Flash, good to see you're, um, alive? This is the weirdest battle in all weirddom."

"Really, you've got to come over here right now!"

Her long, smooth-haired tail twitched. "All right, but what if more cultists—"

"Now!"

"Okay, okay," she replied, walking over to him. She stumbled suddenly. "Hey, what—my legs—my arms—Flash, what's going on!"

"That bug guy shot open a case of viruses! I need to give you an antivirus or they'll destroy you too! Even the wraith form program won't save you from this! I, I need to be with my body to save you!" He wailed.

Officer Katarina Casselini fell across a workbench with one arm twisted underneath her, twitching helplessly. Her face turned white as a sheet and her limbs began to pixilate at the edges. "I can't feel—they're—they're dying, I can't feel them! No, please no!"

00000

The two Zeros' fight took them into a sitting room equipped with a low table for beverages. Serenity backflipped onto the table, blond mane whirling around him. Wrath dove to the side, slashing two of the legs in passing, and came up between a couple of chairs on the other end. The table fell apart with a crash, forcing the blue warrior to jump off again or else try to fight from unsteady footing.

He leapt with perfect grace to a chair outside of his dark opponent's reach. Wrath leapt to the attack as always; in response, Serenity twisted his legs in move that lifted the chair from under him and kicked it out at the other warrior.

Wrath Zero's Z-Saber came up and across as he flew through the air, cleaving the unorthodox projectile in half. He reversed the blade's momentum and landed with an overhead stroke to cleave the other warrior's helmet, but found the man suddenly missing.

Serenity Zero had used the flying chair as a visual block, a distraction to mask his escape. The Maverick Hunter scowled and looked around, but the house was quiet and empty of movement.

"Coward! Come out and fight!"

"Why are we here, Wrath?" The voice came from everywhere at once, giving no single source to track.

Crouched at the ready, the dark warrior glanced around again but found nothing. "I'm here to kill the Mavericks. You're the last."

"Flash's voice told me it was a special kind of hypnohack. The Null Dream, he called it. There's only one way to escape it, and Greenie is the key."

"I know it's a hypnohack. None of you belong in my head. You're Mavericks."

"Listen to me. We don't have to fight to escape, not anymore. Greenie can recover the others without difficulty now that you've defeated them. We have to let him do this, Wrath."

"…" the dark warrior stopped replying, his face stiffened into a frown.

"You know I'm right. Do you remember the mosaic in Pride's domain?

"It showed us, all of us, around Greenie. You didn't take the time to look closer, but I did. He was the only one with a real face. We, the six primal urges of the Zero warrior system, all wore masks to cover the blankness inside. Crude, ugly masks.

"We aren't human. We never were. We came from a robot's design software and took over a young boy's body and mind, overriding his very soul to support our own preprogrammed needs."

"…" Wrath began to shake, his plate mail clinking against itself.

"We've destroyed everything he held dear. His parents and the girl Kyuubit left him because of the virus we designed as a weapon. We threw his childhood friendship with Malon into chaos, and later stifled his love for her because of our obsession for protecting Iris.

"By the nature of our existence, however, Greenie did retain a measure of control. His true love for Malon showed in the end, despite our indifference towards her. He overrode Lust's powerful memories of Iris when she confessed her love for us: he refused her to stay with Malon, despite all the obvious disadvantages of that relationship. Then, when she died, he let you out to get revenge on the ones responsible."

"…" the dark warrior's knuckles tightened on the beam saber and shield, and the shaking intensified.

"He's let you out before then, not always willingly. Whenever it looked as though someone would leave us, betray us, you took control in an attempt to destroy the 'Maverick,' as you labeled them. By the narrowest of margins Greenie and I have held you back so that you couldn't murder the ones he loved. Even Lust has helped us, reacting the way he does to a damsel in distress."

Finally Wrath broke his long silence, throwing his head back in a guttural roar. "I AM ZERO! MAVERICKS, ALL OF YOU MAVERICKS, YOU DESERVE TO DIIIIIIIEEEEE!"

He turned and slashed the table apart, flinging and kicking the pieces into the walls and ceiling. The dark warrior hacked and cut and tore and kicked and bit and smashed the room around him into flying fragments of rubble. Then he moved on to the next, screaming like the psychotic hurricane he resembled.

"Scum, to accuse me! MAVERICK MAVERICK MAVERICK I rule this body! Your blood rains down, drink it, drink it I'll kill you aaaaaAAAALLL! I am no murder, I am justice, justice for your crimes, your crimes Mavericks die bleeeeeeed!"

The front room offered no more resistance. He moved on to the hallway, ripping through and back and through it again like a black tornado. "Sigma, you're one of his, IRIS YOU'LL DIE! I'LL KILL YOU THIS TIME! Greenie where are you I'll take back the body and THEY'LL ALL DIE!"

Next, the family room with its entertainment center. Shards of teleconsole flew everywhere, embedding themselves into the walls with the sheer force of their impact. "A hundred, a thousand years I've fought to save you vile betrayers, you thought you could leave me I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT ZERO IS! I'LL RIP OUT YOUR HEART AND FEED IT TO YOUR MAVERICK CHILDREN! REREAAAARGH!"

00000

_John, take out that programmer! He's activating the Spawn! _Lt. Alia Sorores' voice sounded stridently through Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard's head. The purple armored warrior glanced down at Zero's grey, immobile body and back up to the old programmer at the teleconsole.

_If you say so,_ he beamed in reply, unsheathing his weapons in the blink of an eye. Picard's legs twitched, sending him across the room in a blur of motion.

The Doctor reacted with lesser speed but much greater preparation. He gestured, and the police warrior slammed straight into a translucently teal wall of force. The impact shattered the wall and dented Picard's stylish helmet.

As his assailant sailed through the fragments of wall and bounced across the floor, the old man stood up, drew a pistol from nowhere, and shot his teleconsole. The bullet tore a hole straight through the device's screen.

"Sorry, old girl, but I can't let that Cainson child get to me through you." the Doctor muttered, adjusting his lab coat. He glanced down and saw Picard rising to his feet. "Still conscious? Hmmm. Have a taste of this, then."

Jean-Pierre staggered forwards, one hand on his heavily concussed head, the other sluggishly raising his epée to strike. His eyes widened as he watched the old programmer's jaw drop away from his face, stretching his mouth out to inhuman proportions.

A legion of scarab beetles poured forth from the opening, covering the floor like an evil, living Persian rug. Winged versions of the chittering black insect took flight as a thick, buzzing cloud. Picard stumbled away too slowly to escape the horde.

As his beetles flooded over the police warrior's writhing form, the Doctor closed his mouth and walked through the insectoid mass out of the room. Behind him, while Lt. Jean-Pierre Picard's body fell limp to the floor, the Spawn rumbled into life.

Vile, severely wounded and covered in his own blood data, sped down the hall on his jump jets towards Officer Smith's recumbent form and away from the other Elites. The burly pink policeman raised his double cannon to fire on the violet warrior, but before he could pull the trigger Vile's form flashed with the most intense white light Smith had ever seen. He fired blindly and missed the violet warrior by a mile.

Shooting past the pink policeman, Vile sighted the Doctor as he emerged from the room at the end of the corridor. The old man spoke first.

"Vile, that unfortunate girl has failed in her mission. It's past time we were leaving."

"Yes."

Without any further ado, the violet warrior fired a pair of teleport rockets from his shoulder mounted rocket launcher, one for him and one for the old programmer. Their forms disintegrated immediately, sending them far, far away from Stormy Hill.

00000

Once the support beams fell, the second story of the building quickly followed. Wrath Zero destroyed Greenie's house in short order, leaving nothing but a pile of rubble around him. Dust and splinters from the crushed wood and masonry settled slowly to the ground. His body was covered in the stuff by the end of it.

The dark warrior's crazed rant ended as suddenly as it had begun. He stood silently amidst his handiwork, turning this way and that, but neither Greenie nor Serenity Zero were to be found. Wrath Zero treaded lightly through the wreckage of the house, keeping a close watch on his surroundings, when a sudden voice made him jump.

"Surprise!" Flash's tenor voice shouted. "Hey, I'm back! Had fun without me, Zero?"

The dark warrior turned around and around. "Where are you?"

"Everywhere. Nowhere. Sorry, can't be killed by you. I got the glitches worked out real nice, though, so I can talk for hours."

"Silence."

"That's no fun at all. Don—"

"Silence, or when I take control I will destroy Iris."

"Please reconsider," Serenity Zero's voice broke in. "Please, surrender your will to the human whose life we have taken. Only under his control can we return to the real world."

Wrath turned, beam saber at the ready, to see the blue warrior standing behind him, empty-handed. "Prepare to die, Maverick," he answered shortly, and leapt.

Serenity stood motionless, and in the next instant Wrath's beam saber lay sheathed in his chest. The dark warrior smirked into his opponent's ever-placid face. Then, very slowly, he looked down.

In his mad rush to finish the battle, the Maverick Hunter had failed to notice that Serenity Zero had drawn his weapon.

"I didn't want to see you suffer," the blue-armored blond whispered. "I'm sorry, but it's long past time for us to allow Greenie his humanity."

Serenity shoved the Z-Saber upwards. The tip of the blade entered under the Maverick Hunter's chin and pierced straight through to the top of his head, killing him instantly.

The blue warrior sighed, data streaming from the corner of his mouth, as his opponent slowly fell apart. Wrath's Z-Saber remained firmly lodged in his chest, its brilliant wreath of light burning away his processors.

"It is done. Greenie, I surrender my will to yours."

Footsteps approached slowly from behind him, crunching lightly on the rubble. "Zero, are you sure? I…I don't know if I can do it alone…"

"You don't have to." Serenity coughed, a faint smile hovering around his lips. "Like it or not, we'll always be a part of you."

The footsteps stopped, and he felt the pressure of a little hand on the small of his back. His head slumped forwards. "But when we get back out there, you need to stay in control, Greenie Doppler. This is your body. Only you can bring out the fullness of our power, our fighting brilliance, and you will need every bit of it to defeat those who must be defeated. You will need every weapon, every ability we have to give you.

"More than that, your friends and your world need us to be more than Megaman Zero was, Greenie. All our brilliance, all our power is meaningless without the passion of a human soul to guide it. You must stay in control, much more than you have in the past."

"Um…thanks. I'll, I'll try to be better," came the tremulous reply. "I'll get it right this time."

With that, Greenie Doppler closed his eyes and drew Megaman Zero's data into his own.

In the real world, Zero Doppler opened his eyes and looked into the face of Sigma.

00000

Cpt. Yamato Nagasaki rose slowly to his feet, grunting as the pain of his many bruises flashed through his body. _Officer Cato, what the heck just happened!_

_Er, Flash m-must have teleported you into the cultist HQ, s-sir,_ the police spotter replied. _Wait, it looks like you took down Kyuubit! _

Nagasaki looked around. He stood in a long, spartan corridor; near at hand, a young strawberry blonde in rosy armor lay broken and battered inside a personal barrier, her eyes closed. Down the hall in one direction, some of the members of the 9th Elite Brigade made their way towards him; in the other direction—

"My men!" The silver warrior dashed down the corridor at top speed, plate mail clanking heavily. His spotter's voice broke into his thoughts before he reached them.

_Captain, Picard's in trouble! H-he's trapped in a room with the Spawn and Zero! Keep going down the hall and take the first turn on your right, and go down to the end of the hall, sir!_

Nagasaki followed her directions, grimacing at the sight of Kai, Matt, and Kurosaki all lying broken and bleeding on the floor. Officer Zemorah had patched their wounds and removed both the explosive bead and the acidic nine-tailed whip from Matt's body, but they wouldn't rejoin the battle any time soon. _They don't look good. Did Kyuubit do all this? Will they all make it through?_

_N-n-n-no, s-s-s-s-s-sir, _Cato replied in a low voice. _T-t-t-to both. Lt. Cramer's gone. _

The veteran warrior's expression stiffened into something harder than flint as he noticed the dead man's empty ninja suit. It lay on the floor, ripped with dozens of bullet holes. Lumps under the tattered black cloth denoted the presence of his weapons, processors, and the shattered remnants of his virtual drive.

_Another good man dead, _the policeman grunted._ I'm tired of losing my people to these ------ cultists. Cato, any others?_

_No sir. They'll be fine unless that S-Spawn gets to them. Please h-h-hurry! Picard and Zero are in trouble, w-we can't teleport them out, the router's been sabotaged!_

Officer Smith, his body still too broken for him to stand, looked up and saluted his Captain as the scarred old man passed. Nagasaki returned the salute and sprinted towards the end of the corridor, squinting into the darkness beyond.

At that moment a great roar split the air, accompanied by the sound of explosive destruction of masonry. The underground fortress shook as the Spawn of Sigma activated in full. Having failed to stop the cultists' secret weapon from coming alive, Captain Yamato Nagasaki and Zero Doppler got a ringside seat to the first act of its mayhem.

It had shattered the ceiling just by standing up. The Spawn loomed over twenty feet high and ten feet wide, covered from head to toe in garishly colored, ridiculously thick armor plating. Its shoulders each supported a wide, flaring missile rack and a bulky beam cannon. In its right hand it held a massive claymore, and in its left an equally huge mace whose head mimicked the shape of its wielder's own bald, grinning visage. An enormous machine gun hung from one hip, mounted on a rotating turret that allowed it to fire nearly any direction. Its back held another missile rack and several laser weapons, along with two more swiveling machine guns.

A pale green aura surrounded the war machine's body and burned everything it touched, from the bits of rubble falling on its shoulders to the ground on which it stood. A massive pair of jump jets bulged down from the missile racks on the back, complemented by more jets in the soles of its foot armor. Its hairless, square-chinned head looked down from its fortress of armor, glowing blue eyeballs fixated on the warriors in front of it.

Yamato Nagasaki glanced down and saw Picard lying very still on the floor, covered in the dead husks of what might have been scarab beetles. Zero stood over him, kite shield raised to prevent the falling chunks of ceiling from crushing his prone form. The crimson warrior stared up into the face of Sigma, Z-Saber at the ready.

He glanced over his shoulder at the Captain as he entered, then back to the Spawn. "He's still alive! Get him out of here, Ca—"

"PUNY MORTALS, DO YOU SWEAR YOUR SOUL TO THE GENESIS KING?"

The colossus' voice resonated like the death knell of a world. In the shadow of that sound, everything else fell silent. Zero felt the room swirling around him like light into the event horizon of a black hole, a black hole centered on the Spawn's freakish blue eyeballs. As he stared up into those shining orbs, the young man's own blue-green eyes glazed over, his hands dropped to his sides, and his weapon and shield clanged to the floor (narrowly missing Picard). He opened his mouth to swear himself into the service of the creature with those glowing eyes—

And stopped. Zero closed his eyes and filled his mind with serenity. The perfect stillness of the brightest, highest mountain peaks and the darkest, deepest depths of the ocean welled up inside him, driving back the Spawn of Sigma's massively overpowered hypnohack. He looked to the side and saw Captain Nagasaki's mouth framing the words of a dark pledge.

"Yes. Yes, I d—"

One hand raised to dope-slap the Captain out of it, Zero paused and watched as the scarred old veteran halted, shook himself, and grimaced.

"Guhh. Not today, dang machine. Doppler, get moving, we have to leave before that thing figures out we didn't fall for it," the silver warrior grumbled quietly. He stooped to pick up his lieutenant's body.

Zero gestured, and his shield and beam saber leapt back into his hands. He nodded. "Thanks. You take Picard and go. I'll fight it."

"Don't be crazy, Doppler, come with me before that thing starts moving." He took one step away—

"YOUR TIME IS UP. YOU WILL BE ANNIHILATED. DO NOT RESIST THE WILL OF YOUR GOD."

Bullets, beams, and rockets chased the two police warriors from the room. Zero sprinted towards their source, raising his kite shield like an umbrella to block the incoming fire. He spoke a word, and the kite shield's face lit with a protective version of the Z-Saber's brilliant white aura, absorbing the beams, softening the impact of the bullets, and deflecting the force of the explosions. It became the Z-Shield, a kite shield with ten times the indestructibility of its predecessor. The Doppler house emblem, a pale dolphin leaping past the silhouette of a mermaid in repose, shone with special brightness as its crest.

Still, even the Z-Shield couldn't catch every attack. The Spawn of Sigma's missiles roared out in a fiery cloud and converged on the warrior from every direction, allowing no way to block and no escape. Zero threw out his arms as if to welcome death. Happy to oblige, it rocketed towards him with blinding speed.

An instant before impact, the crimson warrior and everything in a ten-foot radius around his center turned a smoky black. Within the grainy darkness, the missiles passed through Zero and one another like wraiths too fearful to truly touch.

Several of the missiles coming down from above slipped straight through the previously sold floor and detonated somewhere in the level below. Others, flying in a more horizontal path, swerved randomly into the walls and ceiling. Before the dust had time to settle, Zero dropped the Fearless Sphere and dashed towards the Spawn with Z-Saber at the ready. Finally, he came within striking distance of the war machine's colossal melee weapons.

Down came the Spawn's mace, its bald, square-chinned head grinning in the way only a statue can. Up and across came the crimson warrior's beam saber. One burned with a pale green aura, the other a brilliant white; one weighed over three hundred pounds, the other about three pounds.

With strength a titan would be proud to call its own, Zero knocked the war machine's weapon aside. It crashed straight through the ground to his left, and the crimson warrior brought the Z-Saber down and across to follow it. His adamantine blade clove straight through the mace's durasteel haft, leaving the Spawn with only one melee weapon.

Without so much as a pause, it attacked with that remaining weapon. The claymore's eleven-and-a-half foot blade swept towards Zero in a diagonal arc meant to cut him in half. In addition, the hip-mounted machine gun and shoulder-mounted beam cannons pivoted to bring him in their sights once again. Having moved in close to the war machine's body, the blond found himself unable to block or parry all three angles of attack at once.

Adrenaline pumping through his digital veins, Zero spun and dodged farther in towards the colossus assaulting him. Beams and bullets missed by inches on either side, and the claymore whistled harmlessly above his ducking head. Grinning, the crimson warrior counterattacked by dashing between the colossal war machine's legs, Z-Saber flashing to either side. His blade left long, deep slashes across the armor of its calves. He emerged on the other side and leapt straight up in a preemptive strike against the Spawn's rear weaponry.

At that point, the crimson warrior experienced the unforgettable joy that comes with weapons-grade lasers. At the unmatchable speed of light, tightly focused beams of heat energy fired at him from an array of diodes mounted on the Spawn's back. They raked across the weakest areas of his armor with nearly pinpoint accuracy; two of the lasers burned trails of agony across the young man's face, narrowly missing his eyes. The Z-Shield absorbed whatever hits it took without damage, and crimson plate mail reflected much of the energy, but his black bodysuit fell apart wherever the lethal fingers of light touched it.

Zero bore the pain without flinching and used the opportunity to slash one of the rear rocket launchers apart. As the weapon's three brethren fired a point-blank volley of missiles off at him and the rear machine guns swiveled to greet him, the crimson warrior kicked off the Spawn's back to escape.

His boots heated up from their instant of contact with its burning green wreath of light, but survived the encounter intact. The young man tucked in his legs and somersaulted through the air. He hit the wall a few yards behind his enemy feet first and uncoiled his legs like a pair of high-tension springs, sending him back towards the Spawn with Z-Saber in hand.

With a grace and quickness that belied its monstrous frame, the war machine spun around and caught Zero in mid-air with a swing of the claymore. Eyes popping wide at the giant robot's agility, he automatically brought up the Z-Shield to block. The reflex saved his life; instead of chopping him in half, the immense light-wreathed blade bent his shield and threw him across the room. He smashed into one of the walls with a mighty crash, leaving a network of breaks and cracks in its reinforced blackrock surface.

Zero flopped to the ground like a rag doll, his armor dented in multiple places, the bones of his left arm shattered, his spinal column twisted, and the Z-Shield bent nearly in half. As he fell, the warrior's sensory processors picked up on the damage with perverse, unprecedented efficiency, and pain raged through him as never before. Every one of his injuries became the center of a tiny, wrathful hurricane of agony.

With the increased pain, however, came vastly increased powers of regeneration. The broken bones in his arm crackled and knit themselves together almost instantaneously. His form jerked visibly as the young man's spinal column wrenched itself back into its proper position. Pings and glonks sounded from his crimson and white armor as its dents automatically smoothed.

By the time he settled fully to the floor, the pain had departed and the wounds had healed. Zero sprang from the ground straight into a leaping attack, his eyes locked on Sigma's ugly visage.

His blade met only air. With an earsplitting roar, the Spawn of Sigma fired its jump jets and leapt, sending it far above the crimson warrior's reach. The war machine continued to accelerate and smashed straight up through every layer of its cultists' headquarters between it and the open sky.

Zero landed in a roll and brought the Z-Shield up above his head as heavy chunks of masonry rained down from above. _Flash, where's it going? I won't let that thing escape!_

00000

Flash Cainson's headless corpse slumped over the teleconsole's keyboard with a clacking crash, leaving him effectively out of the battle. Iris watched from inside her deadstone sphere as her brother's severed head sprouted a fresh body to call its own.

The undead programmer heaved his (fully clothed, stop giving the author funny looks) new living corpse to its feet and drew Kat up into a close embrace, clutching her form close to his own. He brushed his lips over hers, and the woman's tortured, nerveless limbs stopped disintegrating and twitched with life. She jerked back her head and sucked in a breath, gritting her teeth against the sudden waves of agony rolling through her.

"I'm sorry it hurts. Let me help," Flash whispered, his breath white in the chill of the room.

He pulled her in for a long, passionate kiss. Despite his questionable state of aliveness, he was warm and soft and incredibly strong. Kat grimaced and arched her back, but he wouldn't let her go. His voice flowed rapidly into her mind.

_When that cultist blew open that one box, he let out a bad, bad airborne virus I've been working with. It gets inside your virtual drive though the mouth and nose when you breathe and corrupts the blueprints for your body, it'll kill anybody no matter how tough they are. It's not finished, 'cause it only takes off arms and legs so far, but what it takes off is gone for good. I have to unscramble your data to repair you, and this is the best way to hold a connection,_ he told her as his tongue slid into her mouth. _When I kissed you before, it was so I could give you that wraithform program to keep the axe man from hurting you._

Casselini curled her toes and closed her orange eyes, feeling a thousand needles prickle through her flesh as it healed. _Hey, what…what about you and Iris? Won't it infect you too?_

_I'm immune and Sissy is safe in that containment sphere. You're the only one on my mind now, precious furry love._ The hacker's arms tightened around her chain mail covered form.

Speechless, her face turning red as a cherry, Iris turned away from the sight of them. Her brother continued to make out with her bodyguard uninhibited.

_What about the battle? The others, don't they need your help?_ the blonde asked.

_They'll be fine. I took care of those bugs on Picard, its, and, and everything's going to be fineanddandy. I really mean it, Kat, you're the only one I want to think about now. I have to heal you. You have to let me…I…I'm sorry I'm not a good kisser, I've never done it before…_

The warrior stiffened and tried to use her feet to support herself, but stopped as another attack of pain wracked her legs. Instead, she relaxed in the undead programmer's embrace, allowing him to keep her upright by means of his inexplicable strength.

Her brow wrinkled suddenly. A saline tang crept into the flavor of Flash's mouth on hers, and she raised a hand to brush a trail of tears from his cheek. The effort sent ripples of agonizing tingling through her joints.

_You—you're crying, why?_

_I made a virus, and it nearly destroyed you,_ his tenor voice sobbed into her mind. _You're hurting, I hurt you, I didn't mean to hurt you…please, I'm sorry…_

_Hey, stop! Stop that!_ she yelled in reply. _I'm all right, so stop crying!_

_I'm sorry…_

_Stop crying, you doofus. I'm fine, I'm fine thanks to you, so you can calm down already._

The programmer loosened his grip and broke off contact with her. His amber eyes glistened with moisture, and he looked away. "Okay. Um, you're all fixed up, furry hottie kitty. I'm sorry I hurt you, I really didn't mean to."

Katarina tentatively shifted her weight to her feet, and her legs bore her up without a trace of pain. Flash allowed her to pull out of his embrace, hands dropping to his sides, and silently switched his gaze into her orange eyes. Her tail tucked between her legs, the police warrior started to tell him something.

"Hey, Flash, I—"

"Anytime," he murmured. The bony programmer closed his eyes and leaned in as if to kiss her again.

Kat took a step back, scrunching up her face at him, and gasped as the brunet fell limp into her arms. At the same moment Flash's other corpse sat up at the teleconsole, grew a head identical to its original one, and resumed typing as though nothing had happened.

Face scrunched up and jaw slack, Officer Casselini gawked from the man she held to the one at the teleconsole. "What the heck? Hey, Flash, what's going on here? There are two of you!"

He shrugged in response. "Two bodies, one me. Like hands. Hey, wow! Iris, wunderkitty, come look at Zero go!"

He gestured, and his sister's deadstone sphere vanished, dropping her a few inches to the ground. Officer Casselini stopped staring, laid the Flash in her arms across a rickety workbench, and ran across the icy, corpse-strewn workshop to the brunette.

"Miss Cainson, are you okay? Flash, she'll be infected like I was!"

"Infected?" Iris, her face still bright red after seeing her older brother French kiss, allowed the warrior to help her to her feet. She shivered in the basement's chill air.

"Naw, virus is gone now. Come on, come look at this," the programmer replied, a slight edge riding his tone. As an afterthought, he gestured, and a heavy fur cloak materialized around his sister's form to guard her from the lingering cold caused by Kat's weapon. Tugging the garment tight around herself, Iris straightened up and hurried over; her bodyguard assisted her through the chaotic mess of the room.

The three of them watched the teleconsole with various expressions as Zero smashed into the wall and the Spawn seized up with a strange look on its bald, knobby face. With a roaring of jump jets and a massive shattering of masonry, the war machine crashed up through several layers of cultist headquarters into the air. Zero remained behind, shining kite shield raised to fend off the falling blackrock rubble. His level baritone voice rushed into Flash's mind.

_Flash, where's it going? I won't let that thing escape! _

_Jayga doooown, foo'. WiiPing superbomb! I'ma all on busy getting up in its grill. Talk to the lady-type. Nertz! _the programmer had stopped making sense.

A particularly large piece of blackrock dropped towards the crimson warrior. He rolled out of the way, and the heavy flagstone smashed through the floor where he had been to the bottom level below. Nothing much followed it; the masonry destroyed in the Spawn's violent exit had mostly fallen by this point.

Zero stood and looked up through the Spawn's exit route for the surest path out of the decimated cultist headquarters. Exercising immense lower body strength, the young man jumped vertically ten feet or more from each floor to the one above it. More than once, the broken edge of flooring he landed on fell out from beneath him, but the warrior always moved quickly enough to reach stable footing in time. He reached the street level in short order and looked around.

The Spawn was nowhere in sight. Several government vehicles stood or hovered around the ruined mess of the cultists' HQ. Policemen lifted their wounded comrades and enemies into separate armored ambulances, but there were few examples from either category. Mostly the cultists' remains left in body bags and the police warriors left on their own power. Those capable of doing so hurried about their business as if racing the clock.

Zero's gaze settled in particular on a small clump of police warriors lifting injured comrades from the ground on stretchers. The Spawn had not left the scene without inflicting some damage. However, given small number of casualties, it hadn't lingered more than a few seconds.

Zero beamed a message to the other Cainson, his tone gentle. _…Iris, did your brother mean for me to ask you? Can you tell me where the enemy is going?_

She nodded, eyes flickering from one of her brother's TC's screens to the next. _I think so, yes. I'll be your spotter for now, Zero. _

His blue-green eyes focused on another time and place for a moment before he answered. _…Understood. Which direction do I take?_ he asked, returning to Diamond Earth.

Iris studied the teleconsole, forehead creased. _One moment, please. It looks like…no…that's why they were gathering there. She planned this all along. _

_Planned what? What's going on?_ the blond gripped the hilt of his weapon.

The brunette took a deep breath and beamed her alto voice to him in quick, clipped tones. _Zero, the Spawn stole Celestia from police custody when it left and now it's going to town square, where the city's low-level cultists have gathered. You have to follow it there as fast as possible. Take a south-southeasterly course down—_

_Civil war. She's gathering her army for a civil war, _the blond realized aloud, sprinting off in the indicated direction. The streets were almost empty in the wake of the police raid on the cultists' HQ, allowing him an easy path to his objective. _Tens of thousands of people will die. This is the end._

Iris clasped her hands up in front of her, her shoulders tightening._Please don't give up, Zero! I know what she was to you, I wish there was another way, but you have to fight— _

_Please don't worry, Iris. I won't fail. This is the end,_ he repeated, speeding up until the very ground cracked under the impact of his metal plated boots. The young man's eyes watered, possibly from the wind in his face._ For her._

* * *

Author's note: And now, I will especially thank those three who took much more than just a moment of their time to tell me what they thought of Zero: Diamond Earth. These people have all provided top-notch reviewing work, for which I am most grateful.

Flying Nostril (of rockmanamv . com) – Without your intervention and advice, this fanfiction could not possibly be what it is today. Thank you, elder brother of mine.

MungoJerry – Your constant companionship and helpful criticism throughout these many chapters has made all the difference to me and to my work. Thank you, and good luck in all your endeavors.

Archaon – Your careful consideration and analysis of this story has proven invaluable on several occasions. Thank you, and I wish you well in all you do.

All right everybody, last chapter to come! I'll see you again soon!


	32. Chapter 31: Laughter

Author's note: Well, this is it. The end of Zero's story. The sequel to this story, "Iris: Diamond Earth," will focus primarily on Iris Cainson in much the same way that "Zero: Diamond Earth" focuses on Zero. It'll feature more of your favorite Mega Man characters, including the beautiful Roll; the enigmatic Axl; a couple of characters I've already designed and promised for certain of my readers; and one unnamed but cunning, not to say wily, Doctor.

...however...

In a few days I'll be gone, bound for foreign parts for the next two years. Specifically, I'll be spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in the heathen land of Portland, Oregon ;) and won't be able to read, write, or review any fanfictions. When I return I expect to resume writing with a much greater understanding of people and many new experiences from which to draw wisdom.

But those days are far from here, and the future is always uncertain. For now, please enjoy the conclusion to this tearful tale.

EDIT: As you may have noticed, the style of my scene breaks has changed. I'm not using the five horizontal slashes any more. This is because no longer recognizes them as true characters. I apologize to those who saw this chapter or others without the guidance of those slashes.

I'm trying not to hate the site admins right now.

It's not working.

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-One: Laughter**

Zero sprinted full tilt along the deserted city streets. From time to time he dodged around or over vehicles driving the same direction.

_Not all of them are there yet,_ he beamed Iris.

_No, they're not,_ she replied in her warm alto voice. _And they won't all fit in town square anyway. I'm sorry, but you'll have to get through some crowds to get there._

Indeed, as Zero neared his objective, the traffic grew thicker and thicker and eventually came to a standstill. Leaving their cars in the road, people streamed through the streets towards town square and the Spawn of Sigma. Though relatively few of them wore the unique armor of a warrior by christening, every single person he passed carried a weapon.

None of them seemed interested in fighting Zero at the moment. But then, at his speed, he didn't give them much opportunity to think about it. Only a few minutes after he started out from the cultist HQ in another part of town, Zero's ears picked up the distant, booming voice of the Spawn.

"BEHOLD THE FACE OF YOUR GOD, SIGMA, THE GENESIS KING!"

On the edge of hearing, the roar of thousands of voices rose up in answer to the war machine's proclamation. Zero's expression hardened as he passed through the steady streams of cultists running to the avatar of their god. He slowed his pace as the streams became a river, then a vast sea of humanity.

"BEHOLD THE SUPREME RULER, THE SUM OF ALL THINGS." It paused after each line to allow its followers to cheer their approval.

Zero decelerated further as the crowd filled every path to his destination. Town square lay just around the next corner. He started to shove his way through the cultist masses, which attracted a good deal of the wrong kind of attention.

"You ------!"

"Who the ------ do you think you are, punk? Hey! Get back here!"

"Hoy, it's that Doppler bloke! 'Ee's that wench Cainson's dog, get 'im!"

"Who? Zero Doppler? Somebody stop him, he doesn't belong here!"

"BEHOLD THE THE GIVER OF LIFE AND ARCHITECT OF YOUR WORLD."

"Heretic, blasphemer, ------ ------!"

"Get him!"

He didn't bother to draw his beam saber against them. The crimson warrior took out the Z-Shield, activated its burning aura of light with a word, and clove through the crowd with it like a snow plow through nothing much. A lot of people got hurt, but no one actually died, a vast improvement on Megaman Zero's usual techniques.

"BEHOLD JUSTICE. BEHOLD PURITY. BEHOLD DIVINITY. BEHOLD PERFECTION!"

None of the cultists managed an effective attack in the face of Zero Doppler's strength and speed. Leaving behind their ineffective protests, he made his way around the corner and raised his eyes to the Spawn of Sigma.

It hovered thirty feet in the air by use of the jump jets set in its feet and back. The noise of them had been dampened somehow so as not to interfere with its ongoing sermon. The war machine's many weapons and garish armor gleamed in the overcast morning light, and its voice filled the air. When they came within sight and of the Spawn, cultists stopped and listened raptly to its words, their eyes glued to its ugly face.

"LONG HAVE YOU SERVED THE WEAKNESSES OF YOUR FLESH, THE FLAWS OF YOUR MIND."

Zero flinched as the war machine's mass hypnohack assaulted his senses like before, but shook his head and pressed onwards. The shouts of angry cultists faded into the background as the young warrior pushed towards his gigantic adversary. He noticed that its wounds and weapons, like his, had healed from the damage inflicted in their brief initial encounter.

"PUNY MORTALS, I FEEL THE PRIDE, THE CORRUPTION IN YOUR SOULS."

_You and Flash have to stop it somehow, _Iris beamed the young man's mind. _If you can destroy the avatar of their god, the cultists might not be willing to fight for him any more. I believe in my brother and in you, Zero. I know you can defeat this thing._

"THE FILTH OF THIS DEN OF INFIDELS HAS LEECHED INTO YOUR HEARTS."

_Thank you, Iris. _He continued to shove his way uncontested through the hypnohacked crowds. Use of the shield became unnecessary. _Please guide me to Celestia. She must be here somewhere._

There was a pause._ …She's beneath the Spawn. It healed the wounds she took from the battle earlier. It's not that she's not important, Zero, but I don't think Celestia's the one you need to worry about right now. Unless you mean—_

"ALL THINGS TESTIFY OF THE NEED FOR YOUR PURIFICATION."

_Yes. That's what I mean,_ he told her, his voice low. _It's the best way._

* * *

Officer Casselini and Iris watched on Flash's teleconsole as the crimson warrior put away his shield and slipped through the hypnohacked mob of cultists. Kat, not privy to the blond and the brunette's beamed conversation, glanced to the side and saw the younger woman's face pinch in a frown.

"Hey, Miss Cainson, are you really okay? You're not hurting anywhere?"

"No, no, not at all. Please don't worry about me," she replied, her eyes not leaving the screen. She leaned in towards her brother's TC and watched her champion step into the empty circle of ground directly beneath the Spawn. "He's different. What happened to him?"

Flash didn't answer, but kept up his constant stream of nonsense language as he tried to hack into the Spawn's artificial intelligence. "Poisson rouge. Chidori no shippuuden! Attack of the teddy grahams! Superflyingfistofthenosehair! ¡Dang you frickin' firewallsllawerif 'nikcirf uoy gnaD! Nertz, chalupe frenzy, breadtangle of pizza! Allllll batteries open fire! Hirhouight!"

Katarina grinned lopsidedly at the brunette and put an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, don't be taken in like that. Men never change, right? They're all the same. Except maybe your brother," she amended with a glance at the undead programmer. "So cheer up, Miss Cainson."

Iris forced a smile. "Hah, of course. What was I thinking. I know Zero will win, and things will get better for all of us. I'm sure he'll win this fight." She closed her eyes and pictured the young man's handsome, angular face.

_Zero. I put my trust in you,_ she cast her words across the miles between them. _Please, win this fight for me._

* * *

"PREPARE TO PURGE YOUR SOULS OF EVERY SINFUL DESIRE. PREPARE FOR A NEW DAWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS."

Zero Doppler finally came to his destination. Despite the standing-room-only nature of the crowd, the hypnohacked cultists had left a twenty-foot wide circle of ground beneath the Spawn all but empty of inhabitants. One woman waited inside.

Celestia Kyuubit gave the young man a tantalizing grin as he stepped inside her personal bubble of space. She stood completely at ease, hands resting lightly on hips. Her grand, silky mane and fox tail waved beautifully in the wind while her long, tapered ears stood proud and erect in the face of the unsteady gusts. Her rosy chain mail armor and the thin clothes underneath clung tightly to her feminine curves. Zero's eyes flicked up and down her form for the briefest moment, and his countenance fell.

"Celes."

"LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN THE GRIP OF THE OPPRESSOR, THE CORRUPT, THE INFIDEL."

She laughed. "So you broke free of that old coot's malware after all. Tell me, did you have fun in there while I got ready to take over this miserable pile of a city?"

"Even after everything, I still wanted to believe it wasn't really you. I…I wish I'd never found out who you've become." He couldn't meet her gaze.

"THEIR BONDS HAVE HELD YOU FROM THE FREEDOM OF SIGMA."

"You wish? You, Zero Doppler, the end-all and be-all of warriors, wish?" the vixen laughed again, louder and longer. "You scum, you're even more pathetic than I thought! That spineless wretch you called a girlfriend really suited you."

"THE PUTRESCENT, CRUSTY SKIN OF THEIR IGNORANCE HAS HID FROM YOU THE TRUTH."

She stepped closer, tail twitching back and forth. "I'd kill her again, if I could, just for the expression on your face. The hopelessness. The helplessness. The shock and despair. In all the world, there's nothing like the feeling I get when I watch you suffer, Zero."

"THEY HAVE SHACKLED YOU WITH DOUBTS OF THE OMNIPOTENCE, THE HOLINESS OF THE GENESIS KING."

_Zero. I put my trust in you,_ Iris' voice came to him, piercing through the bass bellow of the Spawn. _Please, win this fight for me._

The crimson warrior's head drooped and his eyes watered. "Celestia. We were so close. I loved you so much. I know you loved me too. Why, why, why didn't you come to me for help after that first night?"

He looked up into her eyes, tears falling from his own, and held his hands out palms-up in a gesture of supplication. "They were nightmares. You're smart. You had to know they weren't real. Flash could have cured you. We could still be together. Malon could be alive, we could be happy. Why?"

"THROW OFF YOUR CHAINS AND FOLLOW THE ONE TRUE GOD!"

Celestia eyes narrowed and her furry ears flattened to the side of her head. She minced over to sneer into the blond's tear stricken visage. "Because being bad is so much more fun. If I'd gone to you for help, I'd still be a pathetic rag that depended on you to survive. But now, I'm the one in control. I have the power. Power over you, power over this whole city. Kneel before me, slime."

"THE TIME FOR MERCY IS PAST AND THE TIME FOR JUSTICE IS HERE."

He remained standing. The words of his reply came slowly, between teary sobs. "Celes, I s-still love you. I love y-you so much I don't know if I can kill you. But I'm going to try." Zero straightened his posture and stared down at the young woman's expression from his full six foot three inches of height. He stifled his crying to speak to her.

"ONLY THOSE WHO SUBMIT UTTERLY TO MY LAW WILL SURVIVE."

"Celestia Kyuubit, in the name of Malon Haolin whom you slaughtered in cold blood, and for her memory, I challenge you to a duel to the death. Do you accept?"

She stared at him openmouthed. Then the vixen broke into a cacophony of laughter that lasted nearly half a minute while the crimson warrior watched.

"FOLLOW THE DICTATES OF YOUR GOD. REPENT OF YOUR SINS AND SURRENDER YOUR WILL TO MINE."

* * *

Iris stared blindly at the screen, her lips slightly parted and her eyes wide.

"For Malon," the young woman whispered, barely any breath behind the words. "Of course. Of course, that's perfectly right. He was hers. Not…not mine. I'm such a fool."

She turned away, blinking rapidly to hide her sudden tears. Kat turned to her, brows creased, but the brunette didn't meet her gaze.

Taking a short break from his incoherent ramblings, Flash cocked his head and listened to the audio feed of the Spawn as he typed. He frowned at the screen.

"Wow, that's such a weird speech. It's like a sermon by a pastor in some church. Except…it's a sermon by a giant flying Sigma. And it's not in a good church. It's in an evil church, and it's not really a sermon. It's more like an evil monologue. Except it's not even a monologue, it's more like a continuous statement. The flying robot church is giving an evil continuous statement. Sis, I wanna turn!"

* * *

"Are—are you really—" she looked up into his face and fell to the ground, laughing and laughing and laughing. Sniggering and holding her stomach, she eventually got to her feet and glanced at his wet, blue-green eyes.

"YOU ARE MY CHOSEN. SERVE ME, AND KNOW THE GREATNESS THAT I CAN GRANT TO THE FAITHFUL."

"I can't believe you're so—oh, there's no one like you!" she chuckled, and beat her fists on his chestplate with spasms of helpless giggling. "You boundless, brainless, sentimental fool, you're going to avenge her like this?"

"ALL WILL FALL BEFORE MY MIGHT! SAVE YOUR SOULS; JOIN WITH ME, AND KNOW THE JOY OF SERVICE TO THE ONE TRUE GOD!"

She stumbled backwards, doubling over in another gale of musical soprano laughter. "Oh, you want to get rid of all that guilt from watching her die? You want to make things right? Ha! You're the most worthless waste of skin in all the seven servers," she giggled, wiping a tear from her eye.

"PREPARE TO SANCTIFY THIS LAND WITH THE BLOOD OF ITS PUTRID, POLLUTED, FESTERING INHABITANTS!"

"When I killed little Malon and you turned into that dark-armored monster, I thought you had some kind of fight in you. Something worth using, even, if it could be controlled. I guess it wasn't meant to be, but I'd really love to see that monster again before you die."

"NONE CAN WITHSTAND THE WRATH OF SIGMA!"

Zero remained still and silent. Celestia, clutching her aching stomach, pointed and laughed again at his downturned mouth and unchanging stare.

"Right, you're still waiting for my answer. I'll tell you what, Zero. I'll refer you to my champion," the warrior managed at last, between continuing chuckles. She stepped back and raised her voice to carry to the Spawn.

"O great avatar of the Genesis King. Will you fight this infidel in a duel to the death, on behalf of this, your humble servant? Will you do so here and now, before the eyes of your loyal followers?"

The war machine broke off the sermon and replied in its apocalyptic voice. "I ACCEPT."

* * *

"He's going to duel that thing one on one?! Miss Cainson, you can't let him do that, he'll die for sure!" Katarina pulled back and grabbed the brunette by the shoulders. "He listens to you, so stop him! He should just kill Kyuubit, she has to be controlling that thing!"

Iris leveled a quiet, dark amber gaze into the Elite police warrior's eyes. The blonde recoiled from that stare as if slapped, and released her.

"It's the only way," the brunette said softly. "Zero knows that as well as I do. If we don't destroy the avatar of their god outright, right now, those people will fight to the death. Even if we had the military on our side, even if we suppressed the rebellion through force, it would mean outright civil war. Thousands of people would lose their fathers, their husbands, their brothers and sisters and sons and daughters.

"And that's not even the worst outcome. If the Cult of Sigma took over Stormy Hill, its chapters in every other city of this server would rise up and follow suit. Millions would die in the violence to follow. Zero won't let that happen."

The brunette smiled wanly. "Besides, he's decided he's doing this for Malon. I can't order him to stop, and I won't ask him to. How could I?"

Kat tore her eyes from the other woman's stare and looked to Flash, muttering incoherently in a world all his own. "What about you? He's been your friend for years, you've saved his life and he's saved yours. Why don't you—hey, I'm talking to you!" she rapped on the side of the brunet's head. "Hey!"

"Sorry luvvie kitty, a million pounds of candy, cergfyzaorchchiardeeah. Won't try for a farthing. He's too far gone. Hoight," Flash's mouth shut off and his rate of typing increased. The beige blonde backed away from the siblings, scowling.

"There has to be another way," she muttered. _Jeri, why aren't our people sniping that war machine yet? Now's our chance to take it out!_

The police spotter paused a moment before replying. _…Kat, good to hear you're okay. Um, about the target…_

_Spit it out, Jeri._

_N-n-none of our weapons can hurt it. It-it's armored by s-some kind of barrier w-w-we can't hack,_ the woman stuttered. _We're still trying, but its firewalls are so strong, and it keeps trying to backhack—aah! I'll talk to y-y-y-y-you later!_

She cut off. Kat, her form stiff and tense, her fists bunched at her sides, gravitated inevitably back to Flash's desk. Iris remained intent on the video feed of town square. Before their eyes, the final battle began at last.

* * *

Zero bowed his head. "You'll want to be out of the way, Celes."

She smirked at him. "Pathetic. I'll enjoy watching you die, slime."

Without another word, the vixen turned and sashayed away from him. At her command, the hypnohacked cultists backed off as well, leaving the crimson warrior and the airborne Spawn of Sigma a fifty foot wide circle of town square in which to fight. Zero strode to one side of the circle, and the twenty foot tall war machine descended to stand in its center.

Zero unsheathed his beam saber and donned his kite shield. His opponent, bald head split in a grin, raised its melee weapons and targeted him with rocket launchers, beam cannons, and machine guns.

"SURRENDER NOW, PITIFUL INFIDEL, OR FACE ETERNAL OBLIVION."

"I remember that ugly face." The young man took his stance, shield out in front and blade held at the ready. He opened his mouth to say something more, closed it, shrugged, and charged.

Heaving with its powerful legs, its jump jets roaring thunderously, the war machine leapt into the air and dove at him. Zero blinked and dodged to his right as the Spawn descended like death from above, machine gun and beam cannons blasting away. The Sigma-head shaped head of the mace whiffed inches above the crimson warrior's ducking form.

With a ground breaking, earth shaking crash, the Spawn landed behind the crimson warrior. "THE GENESIS KING SEES ALL!"

Even as the words left its mouth, the war machine's rear-mounted array of laser weapons and twin machine guns flared into life. In addition, guided rockets from both fore and aft launchers shot into the air and converged on him from every direction. Zero caught most of the beams and bullets on the glowing face of the Z-Shield, but took a couple of minor hits on his legs. When the rockets neared, the crimson warrior smashed both heels into the ground in front of him, creating a pair of little craters in the smooth granite ground.

His momentum stopped by the double impacts, the warrior pivoted 180 degrees in a show of unbelievably quick footwork and used the divots as footholds to launch himself into a shallow horizontal leap. The young man narrowly escaped impact with the rockets, and they swerved around to follow him on his new course towards the Spawn. Meanwhile, his outthrust shield blocked most of the incoming fire and the scarlet plate mail deflected the rest.

Zero's s twenty-foot-tall opponent turned to face him, bald head grinning down from above. As its frontal machine gun, beam cannons, and rocket launchers locked on to him again, the war machine brandished its heavy mace and claymore. "BEHOLD PURITY AND TRUTH!"

The crowd cheered as the Spawn swung the mace of "purity" and the claymore of "truth" down and across to reduce Zero to a bloody smear. Dashing towards the colossus at top speed, his eyes flickered over its stance and he brought his shield up as if to block the double attack.

In the last instant before impact, the crimson warrior jumped up and over the two weapons towards the Spawn's ugly face. The war machine re-angled its double attack upwards to catch him, but acted a moment too late to connect.

At this point, both of its shoulder-mounted beam cannons loosed their destructive energies into a collision course for his airborne form. Zero absorbed the left blast on the Z-Shield and deflected the right with a perfectly timed stroke of the Z-Saber, but in the process lost a good deal of his momentum; his new trajectory sent him towards the war machine's armored chest, not its head. Then, as the warrior sunk his blade into its belly and set his feet to kick off, the Spawn's hip-mounted machine gun caught him in his right side with a hot hail of lead.

The high-caliber rounds ripped through Zero's durasteel armor and pounded into his bodysuit. Its impossibly tough black fabric held together like Kevlar to keep the bullets from penetrating, but the force of their impact cracked two of the blond's ribs and sent him flying off to the Spawn's right.

Directly into the path of its gleaming claymore. While the machine gun blasted him off its chest the Spawn heaved its right-hand melee weapon up and around in a swift backhanded arc. Its wreath of light shining sickly green, the eleven-and-a-half foot blade caught Zero's left leg at the knee and severed it from his body with a grisly tearing noise.

At about that moment, the guided missiles previously fired after the warrior followed his earlier course into the Spawn's armored body. They slammed into the war machine with a deafening series of explosions, but it took the blows without so much as flinching. The adamantine Z-Saber, its burning blade still stuck in the colossus' stomach region, survived as well.

Zero tumbled end over end and landed headfirst on the stone with a sharp, sickening crack and a clanking crash. He collapsed there with his neck at an unnatural angle, data gushing from his stump of a leg. His face went slack but his eyes remained half-open, unevenly dilated.

Cultists jeered and spat on the crimson warrior's disintegrating body as it died, and the Spawn of Sigma laughed.

"BEHOLD THE FUTILITY OF OPPOSITION TO SIGMA, YOUR ETERNAL AND ALMIGHTY GOD!"

* * *

Iris slammed her hands down on Flash's desk, tears streaming freely down her smooth white cheeks. Her level alto voice broke in a piercing shriek. "NOOOOO! Zero, get up! You can't die like this, Zero!"

She closed her eyes, sobbing heavily, and called into her fallen champion's mind. _Get up! Get up and fight! I can't live in a world without you!_

Flash stopped typing, a strange expression splayed across his bony face. Officer Casselini dropped a hand on Iris' shoulder.

"Miss Cainson, keep it together. Your brother needs you to be strong right now, so he can take out that monster before it kills anybody else."

Without waiting for a response, the warrior stepped over and hauled Flash up out of his seat by the front of his tunic. "You! If you really cared about Zero, you'll finish his battle for him! Get back to typing!"

The undead programmer blinked. "I already did, silly. Boy, it's gross in here with all the corpses."

"Did what?" the blonde shook his gangly form.

"Finished. I'm really glad Big Red put that weapon in its stummy before it pwned him. I don't think I'd have ever gotten through its firewalls otherwise, so it was a team effort. I'll just send them away." He gestured and spoke a line of code, and the remains of their cultist attackers vanished.

Staring at him speechlessly, Kat slowly set the man down on his feet. He turned to the still-weeping Iris and hugged her close.

"Don't worry, Sis. It'll be okay, I promise. Zero's gonna be fine."

Iris pushed him back, speaking through sobs. "Are-are you sure? H-how?"

He laughed, wiggling his fingers like a puppeteer holding the controls of a marionette. "Trust me."

His sister's mouth formed a perfect little 'o,' and her amber eyes glinted darkly. "Then I have a suggestion."

* * *

Zero's eyes fluttered shut. Slowly, very slowly, his neck cracked back into its proper position, and with an audible thumping the processors in his torso reconnected to the virtual drive shielded inside his skull. His armored form, soaked in a pool of its own randomized data and already rotting away, arched with the unendurable agony of life as it regenerated.

The Spawn of Sigma turned to face the fallen warrior squarely. With a casual movement of one hand, it plucked the Z-Saber from its belly and tossed it away. Chuckling extravagantly, the war machine gestured to Zero with the claymore.

"SEE THE POINTLESS STRUGGLINGS OF ONE ALREADY DOOMED TO ETERNAL DAMNATION. KNOW THAT THE SAME FATE AWAITS ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE THE GENESIS KING!"

To the chants and cheers of its audience, the war machine flipped the mace over in its left hand and shoved the weapon's haft into the stone. Its huge durasteel head, echoing the head of its wielder, grinned down at the assembled cultists like the top of a malformed totem pole; more to the point, the Spawn now had one hand free. Before Zero could regain consciousness, it reached down and scooped the warrior up in that green-glowing hand.

The crimson warrior jerked awake with a scream, writhing helplessly as the war machine's aura burned into his still-healing body. He resembled a third-size doll in the Spawn's mighty grip. Celestia grinned up at them from her place in the crowd, sitting on the back of a burly cultist whom she'd forced to hands and knees.

"My lord Sigma! If you would hear the humble request of your servant, please, crush the infidel's head!" she called. "It is the only fitting death for him!"

"INDEED. WATCH, CHILDREN, AND KNOW THAT I AM YOUR GOD," the colossus answered. It set the tip of its huge, calloused thumb against the young man's chin, leaving Zero one twitch away from a quick and ignominious execution. The Spawn held him up at arm's length, showing him off to the howling crowd. Then it dropped the blond to the ground, where he lay on his back and quickly regenerated from his many injuries.

And in that moment, without giving any kind of warning, the Spawn of Sigma began to sing.

"WHEN I DANCE THEY CALL ME MACARENA." Its voice had turned into the squeaky falsetto of a bass impersonating a soprano. Released from the war machine's hypnohack, the crowd's cheers and chants trailed off. They watched the avatar of their false god in dead silence.

"AND THE BOYS, THEY SAY QUE SOY BUENA." A hip-hop Latino beat spawned from the air in accompaniment. Its ridiculously bulky metal body shimmied and shook in time to the music. Celestia nearly fell off her seat.

"THEY ALL WANT ME, THEY CAN'T HAVE ME. SO THEY ALL COME AND DANCE BESIDE ME. MOVE WITH ME, CHANT WITH ME, AND IF YOU'RE GOOD I'LL TAKE YOU HOME WITH ME." It…winked.

Zero pushed himself up on his elbows and watched with mouth agape. With total abandon and reckless disregard for the sanity of either its followers or any innocent bystanders, the Spawn of Sigma perpetrated the Macarena.

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA," huge arms heaved out in front, twisting in time with the beat from palms-down to palms-up positions. The giant claymore, still clutched firmly in its fist, swung along for the ride.

"QUE TU CUERPO ES PA' DARLE ALEGRIA Y COSA BUENA." Its hips jiggling noisily, the Spawn's arms folded and unfolded in turn. The war machine caught itself a hefty blow on each side of the head as it jerked its hands to its temples.

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA," down came the hands to either hip, sword waving awkwardly as the arms crossed and uncrossed to travel to the buttocks. Finally, with the "EEEH, MACARENA," there came an unspeakable, incomparable shaking of the two-ton booty.

"A-HAI!" It pivoted ninety degrees, the earth shaking under its armored feet, and began the process anew.

Zero slumped back to the ground, paralyzed with uncontrollable bouts of laughter. Celestia and the entire watching mob of cultists heaved and roared with mirth while the giant robot wiggled, waggled, and gyrated to that freakish song. Police warriors positioned nearby tried and failed to suppress their wild chuckles and snorting giggles. In the basement under the ruin of House Cainson, Kat rolled across the floor, Iris held her stomach and Flash flung his arms around in the air with hysterical fits of hilarity. For the entire second iteration of the refrain, no one could do more than laugh at the sheer insanity of the Macarena-dancing Spawn of Sigma.

Finally, as the war machine began the second verse, Zero's chuckles subsided and he rose to his feet. Celestia's furry ears swiveled towards the warrior and she turned to regard him, manic grin vanishing from her face. Their eyes met for a moment, and the vixen turned to disappear into the crowd.

"NOW DON'T YOU WORRY 'BOUT MY BOY FRIEND,"

The Z-Saber leapt hilt first from the ground and into Zero's hand. He dashed nimbly through the mob of cultists and caught up with the young woman in a fraction of a second.

"Celestia." Before she could stop him, the young man wrapped his ex-girlfriend in a crushing hug with his shield arm. The move left her arms pinned between them. She struggled, but couldn't escape or call up any weapon programs.

"Celes," Zero whispered into her silky hair. "Celestia."

"THE BOY WHOSE NAME IS VITORINO."

She screamed and kicked at him, to no effect but to awaken the people around them to their presence. Zero leapt and ran through them with the young woman trapped between his chestplate and the dark inner face of the Z-Shield. In no time at all they reached a secluded alley, where he released the blonde from his grip and stepped away.

"I DON'T WANT HIM, COULDN'T STAND HIM."

Celestia snarled wordlessly at him and reached into her weapons pouch. With speed far beyond hers, Zero brought the Z-Saber up between them, poising its glowing tip a fraction of an inch under her chin. She froze, a rictus of pure hatred etched across her delicate features.

For a long moment they stood motionless in the grimy little alley. Borne on the barest breath of wind, a rank old shred of newspaper scuttled across the mottled grey-black cobblestones. The strains of the Spawn's song trailed faintly to their ears along with the jeers and rowdy laughter of its former followers.

"HE WAS NO GOOD, SO I…HA, HA, HA, HA, HA."

"You've taken everything," the vixen growled. "Everything. You and those scum you call friends. You sick freak, you love to see me like this, don't you? Helpless. Vulnerable. Alone. Planning on a little fun?"

"NOW COME ON, WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?"

Zero winced but stood his ground. "Celestia. I don't want to do this. I don't want to kill you. Please, give me some reason to let you live. Any excuse. Anything. Something. Please, Celes."

"HE WAS OUT OF TOWN AND HIS TWO FRIENDS WERE SOOOOOO FINE."

Her brown eyes widened, and she trembled. "You…you're offering me mercy, after everything I've done? After saying you would kill me for that other girl's sake? After all that's happened?"

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA," bangs and crashes accompanied the singing this time around.

"It wasn't your fault. You were abused, my virus damaged your mind. You're sick, you can be cured," his words tumbled out like the pebbles that trigger the avalanche.

Celestia's head drooped forwards, her great strawberry blonde mane tumbling down over her face. Zero kept the Z-Saber's tip to her throat, but spoke a command word that turned off its burning wreath of light so that her hair wouldn't burn if it fell against the blade.

"QUE TU CUERPO ES PA' DARLE ALEGRIA Y COSA BUENA." By the sounds of things, the Spawn had picked up its mace and begun dancing with both weapons in hand.

"I love you for what you were. I hate you for what you are and what you've done. I love you again for what you could be," the young man's baritone voice poured over her like warm honey.

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA." Wrenching squeals and groans of metal discontent echoed into the alleyway. Dancing the Macarena while gripping two huge melee weapons turned out to be a slow, but effective method of suicide.

"I can't believe this. You…" Celestia took in a shuddering breath and glared up at Zero through a veil of red-tinted blond hair. "You vile, putrescent, fetid scumbag! You dare presume to explain away what I am? I am what I am because I chose it! I'll never let filth like you try to 'cure' me! Now finish me, or let me go so I can finish you!"

"EEEH, MACARENA!"

* * *

Flash hummed tunelessly as the puppet-hacked Spawn danced, occasionally tapping a few keys on his teleconsole. Kat had stopped watching the teleconsole in favor of paying attention to the programmer.

"Flash, that's amazing! You're a hero!" She granted the brunet a tight hug and grinned at his sister. "You really did it, the three of you."

Iris smiled and nodded, but remained intent on one of the video feeds on the TC. She watched the alleyway and listened to the muted words between Zero and Celestia, and her smile faded.

"He has to do it," she murmured, her slender form tensing up. "She mustn't be allowed to survive."

* * *

"A-HAI!"

Zero and Celestia locked stares, his blue-green to her brown. Her arms lay motionless by her sides. The Z-Saber quivered with the shaking of his hand. Its tip hovered beneath her chin, one muscle spasm from ending the villainesses' existence.

"How can I kill her? Malon, is this what you would want?" the blond whispered.

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA,"

Iris' voice snapped in his mind like a whip. _Kill! Stab her through!_

"QUE TU CUERPO ES PA' DARLE ALEGRIA Y COSA BUENA."

Zero froze, watching the young woman's blood stream down the length of his adamantine blade. A sudden breeze blew back her hair, and his eyes settled on the place where the Z-Saber had entered her throat, directly behind her chin.

"DALE A TU CUERPO ALEGRIA MACARENA."

Her eyes glazed over and her form began to pixilate. Only the pressure of his weapon's tip under the top of her skull kept the blonde upright.

Zero slid the saber out and dashed over to catch her as she collapsed. His weapon clattered unattended to the ground while she fell limp into his arms. Her armor clinked and scraped noisily against his own.

"Celestia," he whispered, his face fixed in a tearless grimace. "Celestia, I obeyed her without even thinking."

"EEEH, MACARENA!"

_I'm sorry, Zero, _Iris told him. _She couldn't be allowed to live._

"A-HAI!"

Zero sagged to his knees. Celestia Kyuubit's corpse slowly decomposed in his arms._ Miss Cainson. Thank you. It's finally over now._

Miles away, the young woman flinched as if he'd struck her. _Zero…_

_She's dead. No longer a threat. _It was like a blast of winter wind.

"I AM NOT—" a crash, a smash, a final, resounding shatter— "T-T-T-TRYING TO-T-T-TO SEDUCE-DUCE-DUCEDU YOOOOOUUUUU…"

Zero knelt down on the filthy ground, cradling his ex-girlfriend's remains as they faded away. Soon nothing was left but her chain mail, other clothing and things, a few processors, and the broken pieces of her virtual drive.

The blond let out a long, deep breath, expelling the tension from his tall, muscled body. He looked up into the cloudy sky and glimpsed an isolated patch of blue, the same sky blue as the lock of hair hidden under his scarlet armor.

"It's finally over, Malon."


	33. Epilogue

After thirty-odd chapters, it was finally over. The screen turned from sky blue to black, and a somber rendition of the movie's theme music rolled over the fanfiction's little audience. A woman's quiet crying accompanied the music.

"What a mess. I can't believe people make these things." Zero got up and shook out his hair as the end credits rolled. "Half those characters don't even exist in any of the games, and the other half didn't even act like us. And who the heck is this 'Doctor' character? He's still completely unexplained."

"Oh, don't be so harsh. It was well narrated, and the storyline halfway makes sense for a change." Megaman X stretched. "With all the violence, angst, and sometimes outright porn in fanfics, it's always nice to see a coherent plot line for once."

"Coherent? My psychotic ex-girlfriend, who doesn't even surface until halfway through the plot, turns out to be the big bad villain. Iris' backstory is left a complete blank, Flash inexplicably comes back to life, and I still don't understand why everything's so digital. Not to mention, my character tries to scrap with anything that moves. And hey, another thing--why do all my girlfriends end up dead?!" Zero threw up his hands and stalked out of the room, heavy metal footfalls rattling the cheap second-story flooring. His blue brother-in-arms sighed.

"Then I guess you don't want to hear about the sequel?"

The footfalls stopped abruptly. Zero remained standing, staring out into the darkened hallway. Hidden from Megaman's view, his face lit up a little. After a second's pause, he put on a frown and stomped back into the theatre room. "Megaman, what sequel?"

"Well, the battle against Sigma is hardly won. And like you said, there's an awful lot we still don't know about some of these characters. Besides, the author promised he'd write more after he got home from his mission for that church. There's plenty of room for a sequel."

For the first time in what felt like hours, Iris stopped crying. She wiped her tears with her sleeve. "Really? There will?"

Zero tilted back his head with a dubious expression. "Really? Another long one like that, or just some cheap little epilogue?"

"Well, I don't know everything. But there's been talk that the next book will have a lot more of Iris in it, and more relationship drama." Megaman looked to the short, pale brunette that had been sitting by Zero. "You could have an even bigger role in this one."

"Gag me with a spoon." The big red fighting robot shook his head. "If there's really a sequel, there'd better be a lot more action in it. They spent too much time talking in this one."

Iris looked from the one robot to the other, her face drawn in a querulous expression. "Will there be another story? I really liked this one. Even if Zero's character acted like a jerk the whole time, I thought the end was so romantic and sad."

"I was a jerk? Megaman was two people. Now tell me how that makes sense." Zero gestured at the blue warrior and crossed his arms. "And Iris was at least two feet taller than she should've been. No offense, Iris."

"I liked being tall. For once. At least I didn't go ballistic and try to kill you." She frowned at him, her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. "I always get forgotten in these fanfictions, or made into the bad guy, or made to look like a wimpy little girl all the time. For once I got to make a difference in the end."

Zero leaned back a little from the smaller robot's wrath, his eyebrows raising a little. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sheesh."

"All right, you two, calm down." Megaman looked up from taking the DVD out of the player. "It's just a story. Honestly, I think kaelenmitharos could've done a little better with the characterization, storyline, setting, and making Zero likeable, but who doesn't struggle with that?"

He turned back to the DVD player to hide a grin. Standing behind him, Zero and Iris reflected on X's last statement. Then something clicked in Zero's head.

"Wait a second..."

Megaman cleared his throat and cocked his head as if listening to something. "Oops, do I hear HQ calling? Sorry, gotta go." Still grinning cheekily, he turned and dashed out the door.

Zero scowled and drew his saber. "Get back here! I'll show you likeable so hard..."

His words trailed off as he ran out after the other fighting robot. Iris clasped her little gloved hands in front of her.

"Oh please, please let there be a sequel...please?"

A crash sounded from the floor below, followed by several small explosions that rocked the house on its foundations. Grabbing her tacky little beret, the petite robot squinched up her face and hunched over her shoulders. "Or at least a spinoff..."

Below, a baritone voice yelled something in Japanese. Something like the sound of a butterknife ripping through velvet rent the air, followed by a great deal of shouting. Iris covered her head as plaster rained down from the ceiling. "Maybe just a bonus chapter?"

00000

Alright, people. Take the poll and let me know how you feel. Go to my profile, and the poll should be near the top of the page.

Your opinion counts…more than Iris's, anyway.


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